Avenida da Liberdade: the grand axis and the clipped park
Lisbon's Champs-Élysées, the mosaic pavements, and the box-hedge view back down to the river. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Praça dos Restauradores
Start at the obelisk, at the bottom of the hill. Coffee from one of the *quiosques* (kiosks) on the central reservation before you climb; the gradient is gentle but it's all uphill from here.

2. Avenida da Liberdade
Walk up the middle, not the shopfronts. The mosaic pavements, the old plane trees and the kiosks are the point; the luxury fronts are just the wallpaper. Ninety metres wide, laid out in the 1880s to out-Paris Paris.

3. Marquês de Pombal
The roundabout at the top, with Pombal and his lion looking down the axis he never saw built. Cross with care — it's a traffic island — and aim for the park gates behind the statue.

4. Parque Eduardo VII parterre
The clipped box-hedge parterre runs straight up the slope in two green ribbons. Pick a side and walk up; the symmetry does the work. Quietest first thing, before the tour groups.

5. Estufa Fria
The cold greenhouse, built into an old basalt quarry on the park's western edge — slatted shade, ferns, pools, a jungle under laths. A small fee, and worth it for the half-hour of cool green. Closed Mondays in some seasons; check before you detour.

6. The top viewpoint
At the head of the park, by the Carnation Revolution monument and the big flag, the whole axis lays itself out below you — the parterre, Pombal, the Avenida, and the Tagus closing the view. The best thing in the walk is the thing you turn around to see.

Avenida da Liberdade: the grand axis and the clipped park