Cours-la-Reine

The Cours-la-Reine, also spelled Cours la Reine (without hyphens), is a public park and garden promenade located along the River Seine, between the Place de la Concorde and the Place du Canada, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.

The Queen built ornamental gates at either end of the kilometer and a half long garden and planted four rows of elm trees, with a wide lane in the middle.

It became a popular meeting place for the nobility, where young aristocrats looked for husbands and wives of equal rank.

After World War I, the park was divided into two, and the part between Place du Canada and Place d'Alma was renamed Cours Albert Premier, after the King of the Belgians, France's staunch ally during the War.

One of King Albert I on horseback by Armand Matial (1938) and another of Simon Bolivar, as well as one by Antoine Bourdelle of the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, who was exiled to Paris, and finally an equestrian statue of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette by Paul Wayland Bartlett (1908), which was moved here when the space in front of the Louvre was remodeled.