Audio GuideJardin des Plantes

Step through the gates of the Jardin des Plantes and you enter a living tapestry, woven from centuries of Parisian and scientific heritage. Founded nearly four centuries ago, this park began as a royal garden where physicians cultivated medicinal herbs for King Louis the Thirteenth. Within a decade, it opened its doors to everyone—a leafy refuge in the heart of the city and a lively centre for sharing knowledge about plants, chemistry, and the study of the human body.

Maxime Dreux

Stroll along pathways bordered by blossoming trees; the air is rich with the scent of flowers and earth. Grand greenhouses, constructed from nineteenth-century glass and metal, soar above rare palms and exotic orchids. Among the first of their kind in Paris, these graceful structures combined innovation and beauty, offering shelter to plants from every corner of the globe.

Eli Bolyarska

Many renowned scientists have left their mark here. In the eighteenth century, the naturalist Buffon oversaw the garden’s expansion. Later, pioneering figures such as Cuvier and Lamarck guided its collections and research, illuminating evolution and the mysteries of comparative anatomy. Their influence lives on in the Grande Galerie de l’Évolution, where lifelike animal exhibits and the stories of vanished species reveal both the marvels and the vulnerability of our world.

The park also boasts one of the oldest zoos still in existence—the Ménagerie—established just after the French Revolution. Over the generations, it became home to elephants, rare turtles, and all manner of animals, both great and small. Even in times of war, when food was scarce, the zoo’s inhabitants remained symbols of hope and wonder.

Tucked alongside the Latin Quarter and not far from the Seine, the Jardin des Plantes endures as Paris’s beating heart for science and recreation. Visitors, young and old, take part in guided walks, discover gardens devoted to mountain flora or useful crops, and browse collections of minerals, fossils, and plants. With every step, you follow in the footsteps of history, becoming part of Paris’s continuing tale of curiosity and joy.