Paris - 4/20- 4/23/2016

Jardin des plantes-4/22/2016

Jardin des Plantes, officially the Muséum D'Histoire National, was founded in 1626 as a royal garden of medicinal plants for King Louis XIII.  It originally known as the Jardin du Roi and was open to the public in 1650. The Jardin des Plantes covers 68 acres and included four Museums: the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution, the Mineralogy Museum, the Paleontology Museum and the Entomology Museum.

For much of the 18th century (1739–1788), the garden was under the direction of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, one of the leading naturalists of the Enlightenment, bringing international fame and prestige to the establishment.  The royal institution remarkably survived the French Revolution and reorganized in 1793 as a republican Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.  Today it is the most popular botanical garden in France situated on the Left Bank of the River Seine in the 5th arrondissement.

 

The Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle was formally founded on June 1793, during the French Revolution but its origins lie in the Jardin royal des plantesmédicinales.

The royal proclamation of the boy-king Louis XV removed the purely medical function, enabling the garden to became known simply as the Jardin du Roi (King's garden) and to focus on natural history

We did not have enough time to visit the museum and we just opted to see the garden.

Right in front of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in the court yard a huge sculpture named Megalornithos by Quentin Garel.

This piece of art is from his exposition Le Magicien Dos (The Bone Magicien) currently showing at the museum.

 

The garden is visually stunning and defined by the double alley of plane trees that run the length of the park

 

Cang took the day off to spend the day with us.

 

Perfectly manicured garden

Gigantic ornamental Cherry tree - I assume ornamental means that this tree does not produce fruits.

This tree must be here for centuries....

 

Beautiful flowers.

 

 

Another gigantic Japanese cherry tree with gorgeous pink blossoms.

 

Incredibly stunning to look at.

 

Clusters of pink cherry blossoms.

 

Fields of poppies....

Colorful poppies -reminded me of Monet painting "Les Coquelicots".

In the background is the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution.

 

As we moved further in the garden the ground are covered with colorful peonies. There are at least 24 types of peonies on the ground.

 

The Comte de Buffon became the curator in 1739 and he expanded the gardens greatly, adding a maze, the Labyrinth, which remains today.

During the early 19th century it supported expeditions to many distant parts of the world, which led to the acquisition of large numbers of plants that had been previously unknown to Western science.

This is the view of the garden looking back at the way we came in.

 

Galerie de Minéralogie et de Géologie displays a collection of crystals gemstones and minerals amongst the best in the world.

This is the side of the Galerie de Minéralogie et de Géologie

 

Grande Galerie de l'Évolution is a natural history museum celebrating biodiversity with a parade of taxidermy animals

 

 

Inaugurated in 1889 as the Galerie de Zoologie, the museum fell into disrepair in the mid-1900s, with the ceiling destroyed and the specimens exposed to the elements. A huge renovation was undertaken and the museum reopened in 1994 as the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution.

The first two floors focus on the diversity of the world, the third on humans' impact on the environment, and the fourth on evolution. The third floor also contains La Salle des Espèces Menacées et des Espèces Disparues (The Room of Endangered and Extinct Species).

 

One of the portal of the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution.

 

The beautiful glass-and-metal Grandes Serres (a series of four greenhouses) have been in use since 1714 and are home to a variety of unusual plants, native mostly to Mexico and Australia.

 

This one is called The Mexican Hothouse built from 1834 to 1836 by Charles Rohault de Fleury, is an early example of French glass and metal architecture.

Approximately 23,500 species of plants are cultivated in these greenhouses and in outdoor plots.

There are a total of 4 greenhouses on the premises. .

 

A botany school can be found onsite and is dedicated to the training of future botanists. The students plant demonstration gardens and participate in other special projects throughout the year.

 

You can see students working on the field.

 

Another working field for students.

Golden Guinea from Japan

 

Pond with a two large frogs that I can see and lots of tots

 

Next...Champs de Mars/Eiffel tower

 

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