I was invited to make a tour of the
”Jardins des Champs Elysées”, guided by a horticultural expert from the City of Paris. I was impressed by his knowledge, not only of trees and plants, but also about history in general and of course also about this park. I already made a
post about these Gardens, but I felt I had to do one more now.
The Park, or the Garden, was designed already during the 17th century, by the same architect as for the Versailles Park, the Tuileries Gardens… André Le Nôtre. On the map we can see how it was planned and that this part of the Champs Elysées still more or less follows the same plan.
It took some time before these Gardens came into fashion. During the 19th century several theatres, restaurants and other establishments were created, some of which are still around. The major architect was Jacques Hittorff (I talked about him in a
post about the Montmartre Cemetery), assisted by names like Alphand, Davioud… which we find linked to many spots in Paris, which I will not repeat here. You will even find the oldest existing Guignol theatre in Paris.
This vast green land is not so much visited; people mostly walk by on the avenue. I would say that it’s worth to deviate on one side or the the other … or both. It’s easy to find a calm place to sit down.
There are a number of fountains and statues around, celebrating Churchill, de Gaulle, Clemenceau, Pompidou, Alphonse Daudet, Jean Moulin, Jacques Cartier, Alfred de Musset…
But… the purpose of the visit was to explore the great horticultural variety. The excellent guide was able to make a speech about each plant and tree… I will not repeat the details here (and I took no notes). So, I will just show you some of the trees….
… and some of the plants. (Please note the little bee coming in for landing on the first photo.)
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