Jardin Des Plantes; Oldest Botanical Garden In Paris

I have much affection for and appreciation of this magnificent garden overflowing at the moment with ravishing flowers that please and tease my eyes with their astonishing beauty.  I have many memories there too, because  I spent my first eight years in Paris, in an apartment overlooking the small garden in front of La Grand Gallerie, seen at the end of the post.

For almost 400 years,  it has remained a breath of fresh air full of all sorts of colourful lowers and trees in central Paris alongside of the Seine in the 5th arrondissement.  I happened to be there again last weekend for the annual Fête des Jardins, hoping to see something new.

The garden was started in 1626 on orders from king Louis XIII.  He wanted his own stash of a variety of medicinal plants that could be harvested to protect and treat himself and family.  Therefore his personal physician Guy de la Brosse was in charge of developing the garden.

De la Brosse also wanted to teach botany and chemistry at the Kings Garden, or Le Jardin du Roi, as it was called.  initially there was  opposition from the medical school of Paris, who felt only they could be in charge of such a facility and that it devalued their authority in the healing arts.

I was glad to see that they have recreated  plots of medicinal plants, with labels and descriptions of their various use in medicine.   A few years ago, I took a course offered by their botanists on the subject, which still fascinates me.

For flowers, they seem to be at their fullest and lushest glory in august and september.   There are massive plants of common interest to the exotic, like that orange spiky flower from south Africa. There are some aquatic plants too in several small pools.

They have some of  the oldest trees in Paris, though not the oldest, which is a locust tree in the small garden of Saint Julien le Pauvre church, across from Notre Dame.

Several of them were brought back by catholic foreign missionaries as seeds and many are from north America, including black cherries, maples, cypress, and horse chestnut, though the sugar maples never had enough cold  in Paris to produce syrup.

In 1739, Georges Louis Leclerc, Le Compte de Buffon took over, and the gardens evolved into a major center of scientific study and research, which remains today.   Buffon, who resided in the house on the corner of the street named after him, was considered the father of natural history and authored encyclopaedic volumes on the subject.

When Thomas Jefferson was America’s minister to France,  beginning in 1784, he often dined with Buffon in that house.  Though, he admired the naturalist’s work, he was infuriated at Buffon’s theory that the Americas did not have species as strong, big, nor resilient as on the European continent.

Determined to change his mind, Jefferson sent him an American cougar, and also the skeletal remains of a giant bull moose to make his point.  By that time, Buffon was old and sick and it is unclear whether  retracted his earlier theories.

In 1794, animals that made up the royal zoo of Versailles were moved  here and the world’s second oldest public zoo was created.  Now it houses 1,800 species of  smaller mammals, reptiles, birds and insects that takes up half of the garden.

Though it is not the largest zoo in Paris, it nevertheless has a wonderful collection in the very heart of the city, easily accessible, right along the Seine!  The wallabies can be seen frolicking around for free, outside of the official zoo gate.

The lovely two huge green houses are constructed in a beautiful Art Deco style and hold collections of tropical plants, not native to France.  The glass panes seem to reflect multitudes shades of pink and rosy lights with the cool tinted greens.

The major Museum of Natural History, contained within the garden, houses the Grand Galleries of Evolution, offering hundreds of species of animals for viewing.   There is also a separate museum of Anatomy and Paleontology, and Galllery of Mineralogy on the grounds.

Across Rue Buffon street are vast laboratories and green houses for botanical research. One fascinating spot is a huge collection of seeds from all over the world, and a laboratory where seeds are separated from the original plants brought in for conservation and later planting.

Having seen both of those previously, this time I  got in a demonstration of how the botanists create new plants from the original ones, so as to preserve genetic purity, and maintain a reservoir of rare species.  Under aseptic conditions, they are grown in test tubes with a sterile medium, then slowly acclimated till sturdy enough for greenhouse growth, taking up to two years.

I was lucky to get some advice from the botanist who specialises in tropical plants, in regards to my own amusing project of germinating date seeds.  I too, like the men from the past, love to bring back seeds, concealed plants and cuttings from my travels, hoping to get them to flourish in my own balcony garden, which I will  write about in another post.

The rose garden is not the biggest in Paris, but is wonderful to walk under the trellises in June, when the roses are thick and fully perfumed amongst the statuary.

The garden also has the original labyrinth set on a promontory, topped by a cute belvedere, which makes for a nice cardio workout to get to the top.  There is also an Alpine garden with over 3000 thousands mountain plants, that I have never understood, why it was ironically created at a lower level than the actual park.

They have their own  botanical school that trains professionals, but also occasionally offers courses for the general public, such as the one I took.

Additionally the Museum of Natural History likewise offers a full agenda of conferences year round on all sorts of pertaining subjects.

In all seasons, you will find lovers snuggling together on the many benches or in the labyrinth, oblivious to the world around them. Perhaps they find that the gardens offers a little more discreet haven than street corners or the banks of the Seine.

Actually, that is exactly how I discovered le Jardin des Plantes, many moons ago when I was a student here!

After all,  Paris is for lovers, whether they have eyes for the wonders of nature or the heart!