As you might know, the Paris metro system is being expanded over the next few years, meaning that many of the city’s nearby marvels are or will soon be very much easier to get to and from.

A good example of this is metro line 14 which (since yesterday!) has been extended to the north and (more interestingly) to the south all the way to Orly airport. It’s now the longest metro line in the whole Paris network, with trains every 85 seconds, and an amazing journey time of jus 25 minutes from the airport to the centre of town.

For this article, it’s the brand new metro in the leafy suburb of L’Häy-les-Roses (here) that we’re interested in, as it leaves you just a short walk from the Roseraie du Val-de-Marne, an incredible rose garden created over 120 years ago that now contains 11,000 plants and over 3,000 different kinds of rose.

If you like nature, colour and delicate perfumes, you are going to love this…

Paris has some really magnificent gardens (notably the Jardin du Luxembourg just minutes from out hotels) but for something a little out of the ordinary, we have a suggestion – go visit the Roseraie du Val-de-Marne, you will not regret it!

This rose garden spanning 1.5 hectares (itself within a 17-hectare park) has a collection of thousands of roses started by rosarian Jules Gravereaux, who had amassed a considerable fortune from working at the Bon Marché department store (he received shares in the business when the owner died).

After buying a large plot of land in l’Häy in 1892, he created a rose garden in 1899 to house his collection of 1,600 varieties. At the time it was the first rose garden anywhere in the world, and even led to the town modifying its name in 1914 to l’Häy-les-Roses.

Gravereaux died in 1916, and the state bought the garden in 1936 before transferring it to the department of the Val-de-Marne in 1968. Organised into thirteen themed sections, the rose garden is now listed as a historic monument and bad been awarded the label of Jardin remarquable (remarkable garden).

The flowering period is between May and mid-July, during which time you’ll be able to explore the many alleys, contemplate the pond and perhaps have a drink or lunch at the Pavillon Normand, the café / restaurant at the edge of the garden which previously housed Gravereaux’s Rose Museum!

It would be tough to choose a favourite rose from so many, but we have to admit that the exuberance of the Eureka and Paul Gaugin roses.

Here’s a selection of our photos, taken from the 171 that we took! If you’d like to look at the whole set, click here.

Don’t forget that the rose garden is part of a 14-hectare park that has even more roses(!), picnic spots and play areas for kids. It’s a great visit for families, especially as it’s now much easier to get to thanks to metro line 14 – click here for the route from the metro to the garden.

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The Roseraie de Val-de-Marne (here) is open seven days a week from early May to the end of Septembre, from 10am-7pm

The roses are in bloom from early May to mid-July

Admission: 4€ / 2€ during the flowering period, free after that

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