Walk the Five Squares Toward the Gallery of Evolution
You enter from the Lamarck square side, a few steps from Austerlitz station, and the city noise falls away almost immediately. Ahead of you stretch the five rectangular parterres — the garden's most recognisable feature — laid out so that your eye is funnelled straight down the centre toward the Gallery of Evolution. Plane trees line the two flanking alleys, trimmed into a double canopy, and between spring and late autumn the beds are in bloom. Stand here a moment before you go anywhere else: it is the view that tells you what kind of place this is, a botanical garden that is also a monument historique and a Remarkable garden, open every day of the year.
Find the Alpine Garden Hidden Inside the School of Botany
In the middle of the garden sits the École de Botanique, where temperate-region plants are grown for teaching and arranged according to their classification, so that walking the beds is a walk through their evolution — nearly 2,500 species in all. The entrance to the Alpine Garden is hidden within it, easy to miss and worth hunting for. Inside, the planting turns to world mountain ranges: over 2,000 species adapted to extreme mountain conditions. From there, wander into the romantically inspired rose garden, where 300 rose varieties trace how horticulture has reshaped the flower, or take the Dutch-style iris and perennial garden, a quiet corner away from the crowds.
Climb to Buffon's Gazebo and Stand Under a Cedar from 1734
- Follow the Labyrinth, whose slopes are populated with historic trees, up to Buffon's gazebo at the top — one of the oldest metal constructions in the world.
- Look for the Cedar of Lebanon planted in 1734 by the botanist Bernard de Jussieu.
- Watch for the statues of the figures who shaped the garden, among them Buffon and Lamarck.
- Note the buildings around you: the Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology, the Great Gallery of Evolution, and the Grandes Serres, the greenhouses holding tropical forest and desert environments.
- If you want to see the Ecological garden — a preserved enclave showing the natural environments of the Paris Basin — you will need to join a guided tour; it opens no other way.
A Garden Four Centuries in the Making
The Jardin des Plantes began in the 17th century on the initiative of the doctors Jean Héroard and Guy de la Brosse, and its first plantings were species with therapeutic properties — a physic garden before it was anything else. In the 18th century, under Buffon's impetus, it became a centre for teaching natural sciences and for enriching the collections of the Cabinet du Roy. A decree of 10 June 1793 marked the birth of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, and the garden has functioned as both museum and research centre ever since. It has been open to the public for almost 400 years, and many of its buildings are classified as historical monuments. With roughly ten distinct garden spaces across the site, a single visit will not cover it.
When to Come, and What to Pair With It
Because the garden opens every day of the year, you can build it into a Paris itinerary without checking a calendar — though the parterres are at their best from spring to late autumn. Come in the morning if you want the alleys to yourself. The 5th-arrondissement setting puts you within reach of the rest of the city's sights, and if you are planning several museum visits alongside the garden, look into the Paris Museum Pass: a pre-paid entry card covering over 70 museums and monuments around Paris, sold in 2-day, 4-day and 6-day denominations on consecutive days, which also lets you skip the lengthy queues. Note that most museums and galleries close on either a Monday or a Tuesday, so check before you set out. If you are staying in Paris into the start of a month, national museums and monuments are free for everyone on the first Sunday — with the crowds that implies.
Set aside more time than you think you need. Arrive by the Lamarck square entrance, let the parterres pull you toward the Gallery of Evolution, then lose an afternoon among the mountain species, the roses and the trees that were planted before your country existed. Start with a map of the garden's ten spaces and decide which two or three you will save for next time.