Le Pâquier, Annecy

The Pâquier or Champ de Mars is a vast landscaped promenade of seven and a half hectares in the commune of Annecy located on the shores of Lake Annecy and offering one of the most beautiful perspectives on the lake and the surrounding mountains. Today's Pâquier, dear to the hearts of the people of Annecy and a source of wonder for tourists, is the central element of a larger group of parks and gardens with the gardens of Europe, the gardens of the Imperial Palace and the beach of Annecy-le-Vieux, but originally the Pâquier extended over an even larger group of land.

At the beginning of the 20th century, an investor called it "an anomaly in the center of a city", and numerous construction projects were the talk of the town for a long time and until the 1970s.

Legend has it that a generous lady donated it to the city of Annecy. This legend is based on the writings of Canon Claude-Antoine Ducis who in 1892 in the Revue Savoisienne alluded to "the donation of a square of land by a lady Mossière for the frolicking of the city's children"; however the reality is different.