A richer fauna than you might think
You might think that the fauna of Paris and the surrounding area isn't very diverse, but the truth is that thousands of animal species inhabit the region: they are one of its greatest treasures. Here's an overview:
Mammals: wildcats, martens and badgers are some of the region's smaller mammals. More imposing are the deer, wild boar and roe deer, which number in the thousands in the region's forests. Fox, weasel, hare, partridge, pheasant and coypu also contribute to this diversity.
Birds: in the air, you can observe the European sparrowhawk, the buzzard, the common buzzard, the goshawk, the hobo - a small 35 cm long falcon - the long-eared owl or the tawny owl, the hoopoe with its variegated plumage that feeds on insects and winters in Africa. You may also come across the flight of the ant-torcola, the red-capped woodpecker and the black woodpecker, which lives in deciduous forests.
Fish: in Île-de-France, fish come from rivers. Eels, bream, roach, barbel and carp... Catfish, pike-perch and sun-perch are also found. In the 1960s, there were hardly any fish left in the Seine, but as water quality has improved, the species are making a comeback. There are currently 25 different species.
Insects: mosquitoes and blue and green æschnes are very common. We also find the courtilière. Brown in color, they dig galleries in gardens. Other insects found in the region include the glaucous notonect, the bordered dytic, the dung beetle and the kite-flying lucan.
Local flora
It would be a mistake to think of Paris and the surrounding area only in terms of absolute urbanization. In fact, the capital region is home to dozens of green landscapes, countryside, meadows and woods, some of the most diverse in France.
Trees, bushes: you'll come across the medlar tree, for example, whose fruit - delicious after a first frost - is known as "devil's horns". The region is also home to the common nannyberry, the stinking wood, the downy birch - whose smooth, shiny bark bears a few black spots - the barberry - a thorny bushy shrub whose clusters of yellow flowers produce red berries - the sycamore maple or false plane tree..
Shrubs: Common juniper, a spindle-shaped thorny shrub, grows on dry moors and rocky outcrops. Alisier de Fontainebleau, a rosaceous shrub with undivided leaves, produces white flowers and alise fruit.
Flowering plants: the enlightened botanist will recognize the blood cranesbill, which blooms on sunny lawns, or the rarer citrine bladderwort, a carnivorous plant that lives in plaster ponds and feeds on microscopic crustaceans. Other plants to admire in Île-de-France include the large-flowered brunelle, the peach-leaved bellflower, the gentian cross, the umbellum helianthemum - a flower with a spindly stem and large white or yellow flowers - the wood hyacinth, the mountain jasione..
Mushrooms: the region's mushrooms boast an astonishing biodiversity, no doubt due to the variety of sandy, clay and limestone soils. They include the sulphurous polypore, which parasitizes trees, the red-footed mycena, the golden pholiote with yellow or brown lamellae - which grows in clumps on the trunks of beech trees in autumn and rots on the ground - and the beech oyster mushroom. As for the famous button mushrooms, there are still a few places where they are produced...
Gardens for everyone
The gardens of the urbanized Île-de-France region offer a wide variety of themes. They feature greenhouses, flowerbeds, fountains, paths and more. In Paris, of course, we know the historic Jardin des Plantes, the Buttes-Chaumont, the Luxembourg or the Tuileries, but also the Parc André Citroën, on the site of the old factories, the Parc de la Villette, or the romantic Parc Montsouris. There's also the lively Jardin d'Éole, on the edge of the popular 18th and 19th arrondissements. Not far away, another large park, Chapelle-Charbon, has been created on a former railway wasteland. In the Hauts-de-Seine region, you can stroll through the arboretum of the Vallée des Loups, or the domains of Sceaux, Saint-Cloud and Malmaison. Val-de-Marne has its own rose garden, at the aptly named l'Haÿe-les-Roses, and Seine-Saint-Denis, the Parc forestier de la Poudrerie. In Seine-et-Marne, you can immerse yourself in history with the medieval garden of the Commanderie des Templiers in Coulommiers, or admire the monumental sculptures of the Dhuy garden in Chessy. In the Val d'Oise, take in the Roses garden at Enghien-les-Bains, the fruit garden at Château de La Roche-Guyon, and plunge into history at the Royaumont simplicities garden. In Essonne, the estates of Courances, Courson and Saint-Jean-de-Beauregard are famous for their gardens. Finally, in the Yvelines region, stroll through the King's kitchen garden at Versailles to discover rare and ancient fruits and vegetables.
