The Paul-Verlaine garden, a green promenade

A path linking two avenues

The Paul-Verlaine garden runs lengthwise over roughly 5,600 m², linking avenue de Boufflers to avenue Anatole-France. You enter through a curved forecourt where islands of greenery act as transparent screens, revealing the central path little by little rather than showing everything at once. The walker moves from scene to scene, each section offering its own atmosphere. It makes an ideal shortcut across the district while granting a genuine green pause in the heart of Nancy.

From bus depot to Perrault's tale

The site has an industrial past: the garden sits on the footprint of Nancy's former bus depots. A stretch of façade on the avenue de Boufflers side was even kept as a reminder of that history. Laid out in the 2000s, the garden chose an unexpected thread: Charles Perrault's Little Thumb. That theme slips into the layout and gives the walk a playful dimension families enjoy. Industrial heritage and fairy-tale imagination sit side by side here without overstatement, for a result at once contemporary and poetic.

Kitchen garden, birches and tall grasses

Along the path, clearly distinct settings follow one another. You pass a playground and the Little Thumb garden, then a birch grove whose pale trunks filter the light, a kitchen garden that marks the seasons, and a garden of tall grasses where the wind becomes visible. This variety is the whole charm of the place: in a few dozen metres you shift from a childhood world to plant-watching. The garden also holds the EcoJardin label, a sign of biodiversity-friendly management.

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