JARDIN DE LA VALLEE SUISSE ,

Part of the champs-élysées’ gardens, this “swiss valley” was built from scratch in the late 19th century by the park designer jean-charles adolphe alphand. The lovely space — 1.7 acres of semitamed wilderness in one of the most urban swaths of paris — is home to evergreens, maples, bamboo, lilacs and ivy. There are lemon trees; a mexican orange; and a bush called a wavyleaf silktassel, with drooping flowers. and there is a pond, fed by the seine, whose waterfall pushes away the noise of the streets above.