Paris1972-Versailles2003

It is with great pleasure that I am updating this older post in my blog.  The Jardin des Tuileries were my next door relaxation while working in Paris for several years, many times just walked on it and have my lunch while looking at the wonderful architecture and history all around me. Therefore, let me tell you more and more of the Jardin des Tuileries of Paris , part I !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.

I always love to tell you about a wonderful beautiful inmense garden I came to love and became my favorite. I had visited before, visiting is different than living as many should know. Of course, I am talking about the Tuileries garden or Jardin des Tuileries in Paris.  I came to know it intimately while working off rue de Castiglione off rue de Rivoli for several years. It was my lunch break lol!!! and on weekends will bring the family to walk on it , poney rides, and swings the fairs of many games on it, the Grande roue , all very memorable moments and a thrill to past by it once in a while now.

You get there on metro Tuileries (design of Hector Guimard),the entrance is located along the Tuileries garden, rue de Rivoli on line 1 or Concorde lines 1, 8 and 12 . The  line 1 of the Metro built has two staircases with low frames with cartridges with an entrance and an exit.  The Tuileries Garden is open daily from 7h30 to 21h. Also, bus lines 20 21 68 72 73, 84 , as the closest , and my best parkings underground here are Concorde  Place de la Concorde (corner of Avenue Gabriel and Place de la Concorde), and Tuileries by 38, rue du Mont Tabor (now not open to the public).

It is actually a series of gardens and the locals sometimes call it the Jardins des Tuileries in plural.  The Jardin des Tuileries garden extends from the Palais du Louvre (east) to the Place de la Concorde (West), it is bordered to the north by the Rue de Rivoli, the place de Pyramides and to the south by the Seine river . The Arc du Carrousel, built in 1806 in the Carousel’s garden, marks the entrance to the Tuileries. The Palace of the Tuileries, which closed the Louvre on its west side, was burned during the commune in 1871 and its ruins were razed in 1881 by the third Republic. From the 1st arrondissement or district created in the 16C to the site of old Tuileries which gave it its name. It is the most important and oldest French garden of Paris, which used to be the palace of the Tuileries, a former royal and imperial residence, now extinct. I was a former treasurer to rebuilt it but it is difficult and costly almost 400M€, believe the effort is dead unless Stéphane Bern come in …

The Rue de Rivoli is located in the early 19C between Rue de Rohan and rue Saint-Florentin, in particular the impasse  and the grounds occupied by the Dames-de-l’Assomption. The garden then expanded during the development of the Tuileries Wharf, a support wall is built along the terrace of the water’s edge, with stones extracted from the quarries of Châtillon.  In 1519, king François 1er had chosen this vast land occupied since the 12C by tile factories (hence Tuileries) . In 1553 Catherine de Medici decided to settle in the Louvre and to have a castle built, she bought land at the Tuileries and built an Italian park with fountains, a cave, a greenhouse and a menagerie, the Palais des Tuileries.

Since the Middle Ages, tilers and potters have been active at this location, hence the name “Tuileries” , even a tile factory by the middle part facing the Seine river. In the 16C, the garden was ordered by Catherine de Medici, the widow of King Henry II, and ordered built Palais des Tuileries (gone since 1883 but see post) that she was designing. The garden of course was done first by a native of it, André Le Nôtre. First royal garden, it became in the 17C one of the first Parisian gardens open to the public. There are a few big names in landscaping to remember: André Le Nôtre, who redesigned the garden from 1664, and, recently, Pascal Cribier and Louis Benech, who renovated it as part of the “Grand Louvre”. Originally, the garden was exclusively reserved for the royal family and the court. During the reign of Louis XIV, it opened up to the promenade for honest people: it should be shown there, as if on parade. But it was during the French revolution that attendance democratised. The people can finally enjoy the garden that has become national property. First reserved for royal or imperial children, like Louis XIII or the King of Rome, it becomes the favorite playground for children, whoever they are from. Henri IV had white mulberries planted on the Terrasse des Feuillants, essential for the breeding of silkworms , an industry he wished to develop. The great inventor of the gardens of Louis XIV, André Le Nôtre innovates by opening a perspective towards the future avenue des Champs-Elysées. The garden evolves from an “Italian” style to a “French” style.  As for gardeners, they are committed to preserving the environment by recycling waste, outlawing any chemical weed killer and using insects to fight against pests. At the jardin des Tuileries, the walker also discovers an open-air museum. Statues began to adorn it at the beginning of the 18C, first for the approval of the very young Louis XV. Since then, the garden has never ceased to be enriched with works of primary importance and hosts each fall the International Fair of Contemporary Art. As for the plant heritage, it is rich and varied, with more than thirty-five species of trees. In the Grand Couvert, they provide shade and freshness, while the flower beds of the Grand Carré mix perennial and annual plants in subtle combinations, renewed each year. The first Motor Show in 1898 was held here. Artists have always taken the jardin des Tuileries as their motif: the Impressionists, such as Claude Monet, painted its light and colors in a radically innovative way. Even today, this garden inspires and welcomes the avant-garde of creation. The recent reconstruction of the bivouacs of the 14-18 war is part of this commemorative tradition. The jardin des Tuileries welcomed Polish ambassadors there in 1574 or Turkish ambassadors with Mehemet Effendi in 1721. Under the French revolution the funeral ceremony of August 27, 1792 was held there, or the saltpeter feast on March 10, 1794. In 1810, the procession of the marriage of Napoleon and Marie-Louise crosses the beautifully paved garden. Throughout the 19C and whatever the regimes, the official festivals were numerous. During the 1900 World Fair, the Banquet of Mayors brought together 22,000 elected officials. Before the Great War or WWI, monuments were erected to the glory of Republican legislators Jules Ferry and Waldeck-Rousseau. In the summer of 2020, flowering will herald the exhibition Le Corps et l’Âme, or the body and the soul, which will be devoted this fall to Italian Renaissance sculpture. The art gardeners were inspired by Michelangelo’s famous “Slaves”, but also by reliefs of the “Bacchante delirious”, a decorative frieze by Mino da Fiesole, a sarcophagus. From these sculptures, they sought to transcribe the expressions of the body and the movements of the soul. Shades of flaming red evoke violent movements, pink and mauve harmonies the grace of light drapes. As for the soul, it is suggested by the texture of the plants, sometimes vaporous, sometimes architectural. Planted in May and June, the annual flowers give their measure throughout the summer until mid-October. They are supported by perennial plants, which last longer. A total of 2,600 m2 of flowerbeds are available to walkers, with signage explanations. I came to work on rue de Castiglione corner of rue de Rivoli facing the side main entrance to the Jardin des Tuileries going to the Place Vendôme! It was magical just to go out for lunch or catch air and walk around it , inside of it! Very strong moments seeing Paris as it really is, in all seasons , and even coming with the family on weekends. Not to leave out the wonderful other museums of the Orangerie facing the Seine, and Paume facing rue de Rivoli and both out to the Place de la Concorde. Walking it octagonal basin and the pigeons is just very romantic me think. Then, you move along the allée centrale to the big basin and even now little boats awaits you. Before facing the wonderful Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.

However, my main take was the part inside but along rue de Rivoli, going to the pavillon Marsan and now the musée des arts décoratifs. There is a big green space before it and just love to sit and watch the world go by from the inside. All of it on the side you could enjoy rides from the forains wheels and loops and the works good for the whole family and great to see the little ones enjoy themselves for a break from work. There is the Exédre square garden which was the meeting point of collègues!!! Right by the exit on rue de Rivoli into rue de Castiglione you have a nice carrousel, wonderful. On the other side you have a children’s playground. You can see the obelisk of the pl Vendôme right from the garden on this area. Just magical!!! The jardin des Tuileries memories forever and glad to have found it. I go by when visiting the city just for a walk and also meeting old collègues.

 At the western angles of the garden, Napoleon III ordered built two identical buildings:

An orangery in 1852, in the southwest, today hosting a museum of modern Art, the Musée de l’Orangerie (see post). The Museum of the Orangerie is a museum of impressionistic and Impressionists paintings located in the garden of the Tuileries, at the western end of the terrace of the waterfront, Place de la Concorde it presents works by Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Amedeo Modigliani, Le Douanier Rousseau, André Derain, Chaïm-Soutien, Marie Laurencin, Maurice Utrillo, Paul Gauguin, Alfred Sisley and Kees van Dongen. A Jeu de Paume in 1861, today hosting a museum of Contemporary Art, the National Gallery of Jeu de Paume.   The Jeu de Paume Museum.(see post)  The building is located on the terraces by rue de Rivoli dominating the Place de la Concorde in the Tuileries garden.  The Jeu de Paume game was built in 1861 on the model of the Orangerie was a gym where the ancestor of tennis was practised.  At the beginning of the 20C, the building is a national museum.  The museum was remodelled in 1986, following the opening of the Musée d’Orsay, and became a place of temporary exhibitions.  

The Tuileries Garden, is of major historical importance, has 22.4 hectares. The gardens of the Tuileries are true museums of open-air sculptures: At the carousel are exposed twenty sculptures of Aristide Maillol and the Tuileries, the visitor can admire more than 200 statues and vases of first importance, ranging from  17C to 21C. This vast garden offers varied walks, at the rhythm of the seasons, and relaxation areas for young and old alike. You will notice two wonderful sculptures going up the stairs from the Jardin des Tuileries exit into the rue de Rivoli, these are wonderful me think and they are done by Auguste-Nicolas CaÏn . The one on your left hand side is in bronze “Le rhinocéros attaqué par un tigre”  or the rhino attacked by a tiger , dates from 1882/1884 ,and on your right hand side also in bronze « Le lion et la lionne se disputant un sanglier »  or the lion and the lioness fighting over a boar dates from 1875/1882. My eternal Paris! Some of my other favorite statues here are by Aristide Maillol  the Mountain (1937) The Air (1938) The River (1938) Elongated Girl (1921) The Nymph (1930) The Three Graces (1938). By Paul Gand Medea Statue in marble. By Louis Lévêque,   the Young Nymph (1866). By Pierre le Gros   Vetturie (1665).

Paintings immortalizing the Tuileries gardens amongst my favorites are by Édouard Manet, music at the Tuileries Garden (1862), Adolph von Menzel, afternoon at the Tuileries Garden (1867) Claude Monet, Les Tuileries (1876),. Maurice Prendergast, the Tuileries Garden (1895), Camille Pissarro, the Tuileries Gardens (1900), and Paul de Castro, the Tuileries Garden in Autumn (1921).

During WWII, part of the garden was transformed into a depot because of the lack of supplies during the Occupation. On 25 August 1944, General von Choltitz, commanding officer of the “Groß-Paris”, received an ultimatum from Colonel Pierre Billotte  of the 2nd DB and replied “I do not accept ultimatums”. In the ensuing fighting, Captain Branet seized the hotel Meurice, rue de Rivoli, headquarters of the Nazis occupying forces; Captain Julien goes to the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré to reach the siege of the Kommandantur, Place de l’Opéra and on his side Lieutenant Bricard clears the Tuileries garden. The ten commemorative plaques affixed along the garden at the corner of Rue de Rivoli and Place de la Concorde do not fully account for the intensity of the fighting and the number of casualties.

Since 2005, the management of the Tuileries Garden has been entrusted to the Louvre museum, which ensures the development and maintenance of it. A real treat in Paris.

The Paris tourist office on the Jardin des Tuileries:  https://parisjetaime.com/eng/culture/jardin-des-tuileries-p3545

The city of Paris on the Jardin des Tuileries: https://www.paris.fr/equipements/jardin-des-tuileries-1795

The Ïle de France region tourist office on the Jardin des Tuileries: https://www.visitparisregion.com/en/garden-of-tuileries

The managing Louvre museum on the Jardin des Tuileries: https://www.louvre.fr/en/departments/carrousel-tuileries-gardens

There you go folks, all Parisiens love it , even if loaded with tourists in a heavily visited area of Paris. The Jardin des Tuileries is a must to see in Paris. So much part of the history and landscape of Paris. We love it!!! Again, hope you enjoy the post on the Jardin des Tuileries of Paris, part I as I.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!