Playground

Bois de Vincennes

A wood on the eastern edge of Paris that the city runs as public parkland: paths under trees, places to eat, and enough ground that the gate you walk in through decides what kind of day you get.

Typical visit

Ages

Booking

Opening hours

The wood itself is open 24 hours a day.

Baby changing

No baby-changing facilities are listed anywhere in the wood.

Toilets

There are public toilets on site.

Food on site

Eating places range from a restaurant, cafeteria or tea room to snack bars, refreshment stands and takeaway kiosks.

Getting there

Porte Doree is the public-transport stop the city names for the wood.

Bike share

The nearest Velib bike-share station is 257 m away.

Wheelchair access

The site is listed as wheelchair accessible.

Bois de Vincennes was founded in 1855 and is classified as both an urban park and a forest – a city-managed green space in some respects and a genuine wood in others. It is large enough that the choice of entrance matters more than it would at a neighbourhood park: one side is a long walk from the other, so most families see one part of it and leave the rest for another time. Porte Doree is the approach the city names for arriving by public transport, so that is the corner most visitors reach first.

Once you are inside, the everyday things are there: toilets, and eating options that run from a sit-down room to a kiosk you eat standing at. The gap is baby changing – the city lists none in the wood, so with an infant that stop has to be planned around the visit rather than inside it.

Family FAQ

What are the opening hours of Bois de Vincennes?

The wood itself is open 24 hours a day.

Is there baby changing at Bois de Vincennes?

No baby-changing facilities are listed anywhere in the wood.

Where are the toilets at Bois de Vincennes?

There are public toilets on site.

Why kids will love it

For a child the draw is room to move: a forest inside the city rather than an attraction with a route through it and a thing at the end. There is no single sight you came for, so the visit can be an hour of running about or a whole afternoon, and there is somewhere to eat when the running stops.