To say that Paris is one of the greenest cities in Europe is simple, just display a map and look at your map. Between two giants, the Bois de Boulogne to the west and east of Vincennes, lies a wonderful and sometimes secret world of plants consists of woodlots, parks, gardens, green corridors, plazas and courtyards. Some are on the map. Others do not, but its charm is at the discretion or feeling that someone turned a corner of land in his idea of paradise. The gardens in full, up nearly five hundred. The word itself is French garden and very common from the fifteenth century.

Photography by Meg Zimbeck

The most striking for their rarity is the Alpine garden that houses the city’s Botanical accessed Jussieau straight down the street. Edelweiss, gentian and bromeliads in the heart of Paris. Two thousand plants that reproduce high mountain alpine ecosystems of the main mountain ranges in the world.

Organic gardening:

Amazing is the Saint Vincent Savage Garden in full Montmartre. Wild indeed, banned pesticides and pruning shears. This is only open Saturdays and Sundays, the rest of the week for college nature school. A rarity must add the incongruous and almost fossil displays vineyard on the eastern side of the walls. And an idea that spreads everywhere from neighborhood associations or the City Council is to small urban gardens that are given to individuals and in Paris have a long standing history. Allowed to barter, but not sale or monoculture. Some are tiny like Villepin gardens, with small parcels of two feet, that together create an anarchic pattern of strawberries, fruits and cauliflower. And there are in unlikely places such as disused railway lines near the door of Clignancourt. Managed by a neighborhood association, The Friends of the Gardens of Ruisseau, in the bud now legumes, vegetables and flowers as a laboratory school where he learned secrets of the environment and civic lessons.

Photography by Meg Zimbeck

Gardens to walk:

In Paris there are about 35 registered green corridors, but the innovation are twofold. The first, the Canal Saint Martin refurbished over four kilometers, which links the square of Stalingrad to the Bastille and the Seine. Are we in Amsterdam? «St. Petersburg? Small boats cross a silent street of impressive water between banana and horse chestnut trees. Street performers of all kinds frequent its banks on Sunday for the amusement of passers-by. Their towpaths on both sides offer a vigorous and inviting promenade and the recent Plantée Promenade. Paseo planted in a literal sense, which is the same length of the canal and through the district 12 and for which it has rehabilitated an old viaduct gift to travelers with a beautiful view of the city from its heights.

Hidden or public, many of these beautiful gardens are havens of peace for those who do not deal with the guides. Spring and autumn favors them and calm them is sacred. A perfect setting for some of its most secret recesses. Secret gardens where plants and walks soothe the bustle of the big city.

Photography by PhillipC

Paris’s best-known gardens:

This is a list of the most famous gardens in the city.

Jardin Atlantique
Jardin du Palais Royal
Jardin Albert Kahn
Jardin des Plantes
Jardin d’acclimatation

Discover the gardens of Paris in an encounter with nature!