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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
Since the creation of the Jardin royal des plantes médicinales in the 17th century, at the King’s garden, the Jardin du Roi, in 1739, then at the Jardin des Plantes (a result of the French revolution), the only intramural botanical garden in Paris has been trodden through for almost 4 centuries by generations of the public and scientists…
Exploring the place is like playing a game of hare and hounds. Flowerbeds and buildings conjure up the period during which they were conceived and tell the story of all the adventures of natural sciences. The oldest witnesses are the Hôtel de Magny (built in 1650 outside the garden boundary but integrated into the site in 1787) and the works of the architect Edme Verniquet, such as Buffon’s gazebo (1788) and Verniquet’s amphitheatre, finished during the revolution in 1794. The Ménagerie opened at the same time, the rotunda was built from 1804 and the bear dens date from 1805. The metallic architecture, an innovation both promoted and decried, was a century ahead of the realisations of Gustave Eiffel. It is also well represented here, notably by the Grande Galerie de l’Évolution, inaugurated in 1889 with the name of Galerie de Zoologie… The entire gardenand the interior of the surrounding walls are today listed as historical monuments.
In the shadow of trees and great men
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) !
Practical informations
Paris 5ème : rue Cuvier, rue Buffon, rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, place Valhubert
Bus :
Lignes 24, 57, 61, 63, 67, 89 et 91 РBatobus : arr̻t Jardin des Plantes
Metro, RER :
M5 : Austerlitz – M7 : Censier Daubenton – M 10 : Jussieu ou Austerlitz – RER C
SNCF Railway Stations :
Gare d’Austerlitz et Gare de Lyon
The Jardin des Plantes :
Open every day from 08:00 to 19:30