Point of Interest
Jardin des Plantes
METRO / RER
Gare d'Austerlitz (lines 5 and 10, RER C) Jussieu (lines 7 and 10) Place Monge (line 7) Censier-Daubenton (line 7) The year was 1626 and Louis XIII had his mind set to create a royal medicinal herb garden. Today, almost four hundred years later, the Jardin des Plantes' 75-acre botanical garden hosts a floral swirl of peonies, irises, roses, geraniums, and dahlias. It's a highlight of the 5th Arrondissement and should be on your things to do list when you visit the Latin Quarter. The Jardin des Plantes is not only a garden. It's also where you'll find Paris' oldest zoo, an historic botanical school, and the Natural History Museum (Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle). It's also a magnet for Parisians seeking open green space to jog, walk, or simply relax. If you're visiting with children plan to spend at least half a day exploring.
The botanical school located in the Jardin des Plantes (l'Ecole de Botanique) has educated young botanists since 1683. That's going back quite a ways! Students plant demonstration gardens and exchange seeds to maintain the garden's diversity. The school also organizes a whopping 4,500 plants into family groups on individual one-hectare plots.
For instance, the Alpine garden features 3,000 species with plants from around the globe. There's also a large Art Deco winter garden while the Mexican and Australian hothouses display plants not native to France. The Rose Garden, created in 1990, features hundreds of rose bushes and and rose trees.
It's hard to miss the four massive glass-and-metal Grandes Serres, greenhouses that have been in use since 1714. Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), the post-impressionist painter, visited the Jardin des Plantes frequently and the rambling gardens within the greenhouses inspired his jungle paintings. You can see the influences in The Flamingos (1907) and The Waterfall (1910). Although his jungle paintings are his most famous, Rousseau never left France or even saw a jungle first-hand. The Jardin des Plantes is surrounded by streets named after great French naturalists and botanists. Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (1737-1836), was the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants. Much of his work is still used today. His uncle, Bernard de Jussieu, was also a botanist and much of Antoine's work was based on his. For most of his career, Antoine de Jussieu was a professor of botany at the Jardin des Plantes botanical school. You can also see his influence on the nearby Metro station and the street named after his family in the 5th Arrondissement.
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57 Rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France
www.jardindesplantesdeparis.fr
+33 1 40 79 56 01
Point of Interest
Paris-Sorbonne University
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75005 Paris, France
lettres.sorbonne-universite.fr
+33 1 40 46 22 11
Point of Interest
Panthéon
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Pl. du Panthéon, 75005 Paris, France
www.paris-pantheon.fr
+33 1 44 32 18 00
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