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Starting point and access: Boulevard des Invalides, Duroc metro station.
- Metro – Lines 10 or 13. Take Exit 1 onto Boulevard des Invalides.
- Bus – Routes 28, 70, 82, 86, 89, 92.
The main depictions of animals and the key features to look out for are highlighted in italics within the body of the description.
(S) Upon exiting the metro station, turn round and head right into Rue de Sèvres. Take the third right onto Avenue de Saxe (you can walk along the central lane). At No. 55, a brick building dating from 1900, which once housed a telephone exchange, with a façade decorated with bas-reliefs and sculptures, including lion’s heads.
You’ll arrive at Place de Breteuil. In the centre stands a monument in honour of Louis Pasteur, with the following figures on either side of the base: a woman holding a bunch of grapes; oxen and a young oxherder; sheep and a shepherd; Death holding his scythe; and a woman with a faltering child (presumably the first person to benefit from the rabies vaccine).
(1) Walk round the square to the right and take the second right onto Avenue de Breteuil (you can walk along the central path). Note the lion heads at numbers 37, 35, 31 and 29. At the traffic lights, cross Avenue Duquesne then turn left to cross Place du Salvador (view of the Church of Les Invalides on the right). Turn right immediately to continue along Avenue de Breteuil (lion heads at nos. 14 and 4).
(2) You’ll come to Place Vauban; go round it on the left (monument in honour of Marshal Gallieni). Cross Avenue de Tourville at the pedestrian crossing and follow it to the left. At the traffic lights, cross Boulevard de la Tour Maubourg and follow it to the right (small lion heads at no. 96; bow windows at no. 94).
Take the first left, into Rue Louis Codet. At the end, turn right into Rue Chevert (lion’s head at no. 17; former car garage at no. 15). Take the first left, into Rue Bougainville, and you’ll soon reach Avenue de la Motte-Picquet.
(3) Follow the avenue to the left for about fifty metres. Then cross the avenue at the pedestrian crossing and take Rue Cler opposite. At the corner of No. 56, turn left under a portico and continue straight on along Passage de la Vierge.
At the end, go under a portico, come out onto Avenue Bosquet and follow it to the left (with allegorical figures of the arts and industry above the gateway at No. 79). At the traffic lights, turn right to cross the avenue, then right again to join Avenue de la Bourdonnais.
(4) Take the first right onto Rue du Champ de Mars (Art Nouveau building at No. 33). At the traffic lights, cross Avenue Bosquet and continue straight on. Take the third left onto Rue Cler (at No. 28, the façade of a former horse butcher’s, now a fishmonger’s).
At the junction (with plant decorations on a corner building), turn right onto Rue de Grenelle. Take the second right, the Cité du Général Négrier. Continue along Rue Ernest Psichari (at nos. 6–8, Art Deco-style buildings with colourful mosaics). At the end, you’ll rejoin Avenue de la Motte-Piquet.
(3) Follow the avenue to the left. Cross Boulevard de la Tour Maubourg and walk alongside a square on your left (a fountain whose basin is edged with small lions and supported by winged lions; a statue of Vauban).
Cross Rue de Grenelle (above the gateway at No. 148, an atlant and a caryatid flank a lion’s head and two dragon heads). Continue along Rue Fabert and walk alongside a large lawn on your right. Note the Art Nouveau-style decoration on the façade ofNo. 38bis.
(5) Take the first left, into Rue Saint-Dominique, with the Eiffel Tower in your line of sight. At the junction, turn right onto Boulevard de la Tour Maubourg (jovial mascaron at No. 25). Cross Rue de l’Université and continue straight on (lion heads on the corner and at No. 11). Cross Quai d’Orsay at the traffic lights (laughing mascarons and lion heads on the right) and reach the Pont des Invalides.
(6) Turn right onto the Promenade des Berges André Gorz and head towards the banks of the Seine. Walk along the river on your left and you’ll soon reach the foot of the Pont Alexandre III. Among the many decorative features, note: a dolphin (in the heraldic sense) against the bridge pier; an ammonite at the base of an arch; a lizard on a mooring bollard; and scallop shells on a gate on the right-hand side.
Climb the steps on the right (do not go under the bridge). At the top, note, on the left, a large vase with ram’s heads and, on the right, a statue of a child with a lion. At the start of the bridge, on the left, there are statues of children with fish, crabs and shells.
(7) Then turn right to cross the Quai d’Orsay again. Continue straight on along the Avenue du Maréchal Gallieni and across the Esplanade des Invalides. At the traffic lights, turn left into Rue de l’Université. Pass a metro station, cross Rue de Constantine at the traffic lights and follow it to the right.
Cross Rue Saint-Dominique and take the next left onto Rue de Talleyrand. Turn right where the street bends (at No. 1, the Polish Embassy building with an eagle as its emblem). At the traffic lights, go straight on into Boulevard des Invalides.
(8) Take the first left, Rue de Varenne, and pass the Rodin Museum. From No. 80 onwards, walk alongside the buildings of the Ministry of Agriculture. Turn right into Cité Vaneau (lion heads on the corner building). Turn left, still on Cité Vaneau, then left again into Rue Vaneau.
At the traffic lights, cross Rue de Varenne and continue along Rue Bellechasse. At No. 51, there is a building dating from 1903 with bas-reliefs paying homage to family virtues. At No. 68, there are two successive gates, the handles of which feature small lion heads.
(9) At the junction, turn right into Rue de Grenelle and pass between the Temple de Pentemont on the left and the Hôtel de Beauffremont on the right. At No. 85, the Embassy of the Netherlands, whose gate is surmounted by standing lions, the country’s emblem. At No. 96, two griffins above the gate.
Then turn left into Rue Saint-Simon (numerous mascarons sticking out their tongues at No. 17). Take the first right, Rue Paul-Louis Courier (bas-reliefs on the corner of the cul-de-sac of the same name).
(10) At the junction, take the first right onto Rue du Bac. Continue straight on, crossing Rue de Grenelle and then Rue de Varenne in turn. At nos. 79, 92 and 97, there are gate knockers featuring small lion heads. At no. 102, there is a gate with what are likely eels on the knockers and a bas-relief above. At no. 99, lion heads on the balcony corbels.
Then turn left into Rue de Commaille (lion’s head on the corner) and walk alongside a square on your right. Turn left into Rue de la Planche. At the end, rejoin Rue de Varenne and follow it to the right. You’ll soon come out onto Boulevard Rasapail; follow it to the right. At No. 32, a tall building with a clock at the top. A lion’s head at No. 31. At No. 36, gargoyle-like guttering.
(11) Take the first right, Rue Chomel. Lion heads at no. 3 and caryatids at no. 11. At the end (opposite, numerous lion heads from which roof tie-rods protrude onto the street), turn left, cross Rue de Babylone and enter Square Boucicaut.
Turn slightly left to cross the square. When you reach the second playground (on the left-hand side), turn slightly right towards the war animals memorial, consisting of horizon-blue metal silhouettes depicting a horse, a donkey, a dog and a pigeon held by a soldier. Continue along the path and, when you come to a sculpted group, turn right. Leave the square and you will immediately find the Sèvres-Babylone underground station on your left (E).
To get back home:
- Metro – Lines 10 or 12.
- Bus – Routes 63, 68, 70, 83, 84, 86, 94.
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