Paris National Library

At the center of the 60,000 m² rectangular site lies a 12,000 m² forest. 150 mature pine trees were planted in the courtyard in 1995, which is open to the public for only one afternoon a year.

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The forest was intended to be a miniature replica of the Forêt de Fontainebleau, where François Mitterrand enjoyed walking. Consequently, 18 to 22-meter-tall, forty-year-old trees were excavated in Normandy using OPTIMAL 2500 and OPTIMAL 3000 machines and taken to a nursery for temporary storage so they could continue to grow.
In 1994, two years later, trucks transported the trees, with root systems three meters in diameter, to the capital. Cranes lifted them into the courtyard. The tallest trees now stand thirty meters high. The forest is a project that made the then-young architect Dominique Perrault famous. And the forest as well.