I’d planned a visit to Musée d’Orsay today, but it seems lots of places are closed on Mondays, most museums included. So I took a 10 minute walk to the Jardin des Plantes.
The Paris Botanical Gardens date back nearly 400 years and cover 19 hectares of various styles of garden. There are long stretches of neat garden beds interspersed with the buildings of the Museum of Natural History. There is a zoo, which I avoided. There are some lovely less frequented areas for specimens of particular climate types.
I spent several hours in the Alpine Garden. It’s a surprisingly lush, happily wild enough affair that would make the heart of my friend Marie-Louise sing.
Can the term “exquisite” apply to a vast garden? I guess it depends on the point of observation and the scale of observance. These are crafted gardens, but nothing like the ordered regiments of Palais Royal or the Tuileries. This garden is tended (by many, it seems) but not at all restrained by borders and edges. Plants mingle and climb each other, and tumble down walls and across paths. It was busy today, but not crowded, with bird song and rustling leaves rising above the rumble of traffic.
The numbers of gardeners at work surprised me. Surely the sign of a civilised society when public gardens have such resources applied.