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 history. Created almost four hundred years ago, this park began as a royal garden where doctors grew medicinal herbs for King Louis XIII. Within a decade, it became open to everyone—a green retreat in the city and a lively center for sharing knowledge of plants, chemistry, and anatomy.

Maxime Dreux

Wander along the paths lined with blossoming trees; the air is scented with flowers and earth. Majestic greenhouses, built with nineteenth-century glass and metal, rise above rare palms and exotic orchids. These structures were among the first in Paris to use such materials, blending innovation and beauty to shelter plants from every climate.

Eli Bolyarska

Famous scientists shaped this place. Buffon, a naturalist, expanded the garden in the eighteenth century. Later, visionaries like Cuvier and Lamarck guided its collections and research, bringing the mysteries of evolution and comparative anatomy to life. Their legacy endures in the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution, where lifelike animal displays and stories of extinct creatures show our planet’s wonders and fragility.

The park is also home to one of the world’s oldest zoos, the Ménagerie, founded just after the French Revolution. Over the years, it sheltered elephants, rare turtles, and creatures both large and small. Even during wars, when food was scarce, the zoo’s residents stood as symbols of hope and curiosity.

Nestled beside the Latin Quarter and close to the Seine, the Jardin des Plantes remains Paris’s heart for science and leisure. Visitors of all ages join regular tours, explore gardens dedicated to mountain flowers or economic plants, or browse the mineral, fossil, and plant collections. With each step, history unfolds, and you become part of Paris’s ongoing story of discovery and delight.