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Light points in denatured 
area-Parc Citroen

Parc Brassens, La Ruche, Poste and Pasteur

Paris-15th arr-Light points in a denatured area-Parc Citroen 

In 1256, Gerard de Moret, abbey of Saint-Germain built a chapel for the elderly. This can be considered as the first stone of the 15th arrondissement. It's in the 1860 that Paris took the area in its boundaries. The 15th (left bank) is the largest and most populated arrondissement of Paris while in the latest decennia there was a lot of new building and sanitation going on. Only the quay Citroen (on the northwest side) reminds us that once, until far in the seventies, the famous automobile factory had its headquarters here. The legendary "traction avant", the" duck 2 CV" and other DS legends. 

Front de Seine

Near the PONT MIRABEAU, famous since Apollinaire wrote his poem, the famous "bal de lamarine " existed until General de Gaulle signed its death warrant to build the "Front de Seine", between the metro station "Bir Hakeim" and the "Pont de Garigliano". The river front can be easily rewarded by the title of "insult to good taste". If you drive today along the Seine and have a look at the hotels and boring, glass office towers around the "Centre Commercial Grenelle", loses all appetite to continue to explore the 15th arrondissement. Most of the tourists will just have a look at the horrible Tour Montparnasse.
But the 15th has much more to offer, especially if you are not in a hurry. Some places kept their original atmosphere like the rue du Commerce, rue des Morillons or rue Lecourbe. 
But most of all, I have to point out two parks, certainly worth a visit. In the 15th arr., for the park amateurs, you have two important and nice parks: the parc Georges-Brassens and the arc Georges Citroen. I described these two parks already in my series "unknown parks and gardens" to find on the main page of "Paris visits" but I will repeat them here, as part of the 15th arrondissement visit. 
The parc André Citroen is he most futurist park of Paris and is located on the site of the ancient Citroen plant by the landscape architects Alain Provost and Gilles Clement. Water has a very important place here (proximity of the Seine river obliges!). As soon as the sunny days come out, children dabble about in the basins, called here "lisières", and have fun under the waterspouts. In front of two impressive glass cases, bordered by Magnolias pruned in a column, a vast lawn, where you are permitted to run on, opens on the river.
On one side you discover the "Jardin des Metamorphoses" geometrically organized, on the other side, "Le Jardin en Mouvement", looks like fallow land, but imagined by Gilles Clement: rose bushes, corn -poppies, bamboos, balsamines, digitals, thorns and other weed grow freely. In its proloungement come the "Jardins sériels", more intimate, with each one in a dominant colour: red, orange, green, blue, gilded and blue and silvery.
You can access through the quai André Citroen and the rues de la Montagne de l'Esperou, de la Montagne de la Fage, Saint-Charles et Leblanc, Paris 15th. 
Open every day at 9.00. Closing half an hour before sunset.

Bibliography

--Vie et histoire des arrondissements de Paris, ed.Hervas (1985-1988--Nouvelle Histoire de Paris, ed.Hachette-Paris, 2000 d'histoire, by J.Favier, ed.Fayard 1997--Naissance de Paris, by M.Fleury, ed.Imprimerie Nationale 1997, --Remembrance of Things Past, by Marcel Proust ( New York, Random House, 198),--Le Jardin en mouvement de la Vallée au parc Andre-Citroen by Gilles Clement (Editions Sens et Tonka, Paris, 1994), Dictionnaire Historique des rues de Paris, by Jacques Hillairet (2 vol. Paris, Editions de Minuit, 1961)