The Jardin des Plantes at the Natural History National Museum

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Jardins des Plantes

Heir to the Jardin royal des plantes médicinales whose creation was decided in 1626 under Louis XIII, the current Jardin des Plantes first opened to the public in 1640. Today it is a place rich in exceptional patrimony, unique in France.

Witnesses from stone and iron

Over there, a statue of Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, facing towards the Grande Galerie de l’Évolution. At the other end of the garden, it’s Jean-Baptiste Lamarck who is honoured. Antoine Laurent de Jussieu is there to welcome you under the peristyle of the Galerie de Minéralogie, wheras the great chemist Michel-Eugène Chevreul has his place close to the Hôtel de Magny… In the Museum, all these great men reign henceforth over an exceptional plantlife patrimony which justifies a stroll (historical trees, the carrés de la perspective (the plots of perspective), alpine garden, rose garden, etc.) in its own right, and curiosities such as the labyrinth hillock, made from refuse and chalk rubble at the beginning of the 14th century. This very dry soil was initially covered by vineyards until about 1670 and would later see Mediterranean vegetation: there are still 2 Cretan maples to be found, planted in 1702 by one of botany’s founding fathers, Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708) !

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