Parc de la Vallée aux Loups

Châtenay-Malabry, France, France

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The Parc de la Vallée aux Loups, officially the Domaine départemental de la Vallée-aux-Loups, is a 56-hectare park and garden complex located in the heart of Val d'Aulnay at Châtenay-Malabry, just south of Paris in the Hauts-de-Seine department of France.

The domain is designated as a "Jardin Remarquable" (Remarkable Garden) by the French Ministry of Culture since 2004 and comprises four distinct elements: the Vallée-aux-Loups arboretum, the historic Maison de Chateaubriand with its surrounding park, the Île Verte, and a wooded park formed from former properties.

The site is most famous for being the home of French Romantic writer François-René de Chateaubriand from 1807 to 1817, where he lived in a modest cottage that he transformed into a romantic park, planting exotic trees from his travels including a 31-meter Indian chestnut, a Louisiana bald cypress, a Virginia tulip tree, cedars from Lebanon and Algeria, and a unique worldwide Catalpa from Louisiana that spreads across 400 square meters.

The historic house itself is listed as a Monument historique since 1978 and is now open to visitors year-round with guided tours combining history and botany, while the arboretum features remarkable trees with identification signs at their base, vibrant azalea bushes around ponds, and beautiful rhododendron masses. The park is crossed by the small ru d'Aulnay stream flowing in daylight and offers peaceful walking paths sheltered from urbanization, making it one of the most beautiful parks in Greater Paris near Parc de Sceaux.