Garden of the Plants

The Jardin des Plantes is France's principal botanical garden, founded in 1635 as a royal medicinal garden for Louis XIII and stretching over 23.5 hectares between the Seine and the Paris Mosque. Under the naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon from 1739 it became a scientific centre of European stature, where Lamarck and Cuvier later worked. Today it forms part of the Museum national d'histoire naturelle and houses several major collections: the Grande Galerie de l'Evolution, the Galerie de Paleontologie famous for its row of dinosaur skeletons, and the small Menagerie opened in 1794, one of the oldest zoos in the world. Walking the alleys reveals 19th-century glasshouses, an alpine garden and a Lebanon cedar planted in 1734. The combination of working science, 19th-century architecture and quiet promenade makes it one of the richest urban spaces in the French capital.