Ozanam Square in spring: small, serene, and so Parisian.
Small, serene, and so Parisian is an apt description of the Ozanam Square garden in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.
Ozanam Square (Place Ozanam) is named after Frédéric Ozanam, a 19th-century French scholar and social reformer who co-founded the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, a charitable organization still active today. The garden space was officially opened in 2006 and designed to be tranquil yet community oriented.
Though modest in size, Ozanam Square has character, especially in spring. The flowering trees and seasonal blooms include cherry blossoms, magnolias, irises, and daffodils. It includes a play area, water fountain, benches, lamps, pathways, and raised community vegetable beds.
The garden was built on a previous parking lot, and an example of Paris’s efforts to reclaim urban space for green use. City Hall manages it, maintained by the Direction des Espaces Verts et de l’Environnement (DEVE), the city’s department responsible for Paris’s green spaces.
It is located near landmark cafés like La Rotonde, La Coupole, Le Select, and Le Dôme, frequented by writers and artists of the 20th century, including Ernest Hemingway. The square has become popular with photographers and artists sketching the spring time flowers or the autumn leaves.
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