Square Hector Berlioz

The Square Hector Berlioz is a small, egg-shaped garden tucked into the ninth arrondissement. It occupies space that once belonged to the Folie Bouëxière, a nineteenth-century pleasure park known for balloon flights and pigeon shooting. During the Second Empire, it was called Square Sainte-Hélène because a resident allegedly planted a cutting of the willow that shaded Napoleon’s grave on Saint Helena at this very spot.