Paris during the Second Empire the Service des Promenades et Plantations, directly under the Prefect Haussmann. The first director was Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand, who designed all the new parks of Paris and the avenues and trees along the boulevards, small squares and gardens in the city. The most popular promenade for the wealthier Parisians began at the Place de la Concorde, went up the Champs-Elysees to the Place de l'Étoile, and then turned onto the Avenue de l'Impératrice (today the Avenue Foch), the widest avenue in the city, which was the ceremonial entry to the new Bois de Boulogne. Once in the park, the promenaders
Avenue Foch 140 meters wide. In addition to the four thousand trees that line that avenue, the garden was originally planted with 2,400 different species of trees and plants, making it, as Alphand wrote, "a kind of arboretum." Many of the original trees can still be found in the gardens, including a chestnut tree from India, 4.7 meters in circumference; from 1852, an elm tree from Siberia, 3.8 meters in circumference (1852); and a giant Catalpa tree 3.5 meters in circumference (1852). The gardens contain a monument to their creator, Jean-Charles Alphand, designed by architect Jules Formigé, with sculpture by Jules Dalou.