Chinese colours.

The winter at the Jardin des Plantes may be a bit dull. Of course, the “ménagerie” - the little zoo - and the different museums are there, but the gardens are not very colourful. (I guess this is my 8^th post about the Jardin des Plantes – check them all here.)

So... this year, there was obviously a decision to make the gardens more colourful also during the grey season. Some installations have been made, with the help of Chinese specialists - prehistoric and still existing animals…  If you make the walk during a rainy afternoon, it may not be too spectacular, but…

… when it gets dark…!

Look at the difference – the frog in the afternoon and the same frog in the evening!

This means that the Jardin des Plantes is exceptionally open late in the evenings. This will go on until mid-January. For the "night show”, you need a ticket. There are great crowds, you need to be patient!

You are asked to follow a prepared walk and, as you partly are among some more or less sleeping – real – animals, to try to be relatively silent.

... and it's spectacular!

The top picture shows some flamingos. I found the real ones – they were not sleeping!

Blue sky...

Last week was quite busy with (very nice) visitors, some meetings… when do I « work » for my blog? Well, maybe a bit too easy as a solution, but, with my friends, I took a walk through the “Jardin des Plantes” – on which I already posted quite often – and I just took a few flower-photos, partly from the very rectangular French type of garden, but also from the wilder, so called, “Alpine Garden”.

So, some examples… and there are a lot of happy, almost spoiled, city-bees.

Greenhouses - Jardin des Plantes

When I recently visited the « Jardin des Plantes » to have a look on the newly renovated « Gloriette de Buffon », see preceding post, I also decided, for the first time, to visit the greenhouses – the temperature and the humidity that August day was about the same in- as outside.

The squarer and higher ones were built 1834-36, the architect was Charles Rouault de Fleury (1801-75). The use of steel and glass was of course quite innovative and it may be interesting to notice that these buildings are about 20 years older than the famous Baltard pavilions.

The lower, rounder, pavilions were added about 100 years later (1934-37, architect René-Félix Berger, 1878-1954). All the pavilions were renovated during the years 2005-10.

I’m not going to try to describe which plants you may see, just too many to be mentioned in a “normal” post.  Here are just a few examples of what it all looks like inside.

There are of course a few thousands of plants and species to be found also outside in the park. Here are just two examples.

The "Gloriette de Buffon"

In a post about “Le Jardin des Plantes” some two years ago (see here) I mentioned that the “Gloriette de Buffon” was in bad shape and was in heavy need of restoration. Money was collected and the belvedere is now again in very good shape.

The “Jardin des Plantes” opened to public already during the 17^th century and has since of course been considerably modified during the centuries with several museums, a little zoo…. This is my sixth post about  the "Jardin".

The “Gloirette” dates from 1788 (!!!) and stands on the top of a little artificial hill, actually and originally a medieval waste dump – the belvedere was preceded by a wind mill. The “Gloriette” is considered to be one of world’s oldest pure metallic structures (about a century before Eiffel) and was definitely worth being saved.

The design was made by an architect (Edme Verniquet, 1727-1804) and was actually executed by the park’s locksmith. The metal came from the “Great Buffon Forge”, created in 1768 by Count Buffon (Georges-Louis Buffon, 1707-88), who was also a leading naturalist and who become director of the “Jardin”. The belvedere was completed the year of Buffon’s death and it was obvious that the “Gloriette” should be linked to his name.

Buffon’s statue is of course to be found in the park. Buffon is a name that today, at least for a Parisian, makes you rather and spontaneously think of Gianluigi Buffon, considered as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, who just joined the Paris football / soccer team, PSG. (No statue yet.)

The inscription “Horas non numero nisi serenas”, I count only the hours that are serene, can now again be read. This Latin motto can be seen on a number of monuments around the world and is in general linked to a sun dial. On top of the “Gloriette” there used to a mechanism, long since lost, where a magnifying glass and a wick made a bell ring at noon (on a sunny day).

It may be interesting to know that the word “gloriette” has its origin from an old 12th century French word “gloire”, meaning a little room, and is supposed to be a building in a garden on an elevated site, respecting the surroundings.

The “Gloriette” is overlooking a cedar of Lebanon, which was planted here in 1734, 54 years before the construction of the “Gloreitte”.     

A peaceful haven.

The “Jardin de Plantes” is worth a visit for many reasons – its gardens, a number of museums, a little zoo… I already posted about it several times. If you look for a really peaceful moment I would recommend a visit to what is a bit separated from the rest, the Alpine Garden. (There is an entrance fee only during the weekend.) The “Jardin Alpin”, originally referred to as the “Jardin des Plantes de Montagne” (mountain plants) is as old as the total park – from around 1640, but it has had its present look since 1931.

A special little look on some frogs and some water lilies.

On the way here, you can’t avoid a special look on the Lebanese cedar, planted in 1734… and the “Gloriette de Buffon” from 1787, the oldest metallic installation in Paris. It’s heavily in need of restoration and the park authorities ask for contributions - see here.

Apart from all the more public buildings, there are also some nice old ones, hidden behind trees. 

The Grand Gallery of Evolution

In the “Jardin des Plantes” (see previous post), originally created as a Royal Medicinal Plant Garden during the 17^th century and quite soon opened to the public, you can find several buildings being part of the National Museum of Natural History, founded in 1793, during the Revolution. Actually the museum comprises 14 sites all over France, but the major ones may be the ones in the “Jardin des Plantes”, including the Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology, the Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy… and especially the Grand Gallery of Evolution in a building which stood ready at the same time as the Eiffel Tower, in 1889.

There are some 7000 animal species to be seen, still existing or not. The museum was recently modernized, still respecting the original architecture. Also, there are a lot of “toys” and modern equipment (functioning!), to the delight of kids …

… as I could notice during a visit with my grandkids in late August.

In a separate part of the park, there is a little “zoo”. I posted about it already.

Jardin des Plantes - menagerie

As I mentioned in the previous post about the “Jardin des Plantes”, you can within the botanical garden also find a zoo, certainly not the biggest in the world, but one of the first (beaten by Schönbrunn, Vienna). A great advantage is that it’s in the middle of the city. It dates from 1794-95 (revolutionary years) and has been open to public since. At the start it was to a great part inhabited by animals transferred from the Royal Menagerie at Versailles.

Due to limited space and the impossibility to offer the conditions we today wish to allow animals in captivity, this is not where you will find a large number of bigger wild beasts anymore, but what it offers is quite interesting. More than a thousand types of animals can be seen. The reptiles are well represented, including some giant, more than hundred years old, tortoises.

Anyhow, granddaughter Paloma was impressed and preceded most of the time her aunt, my daughter Stéphanie, by a few steps.

... and we were all impressed by mother orang-outang who rose from her siesta to be photographed and even offered a modest smile.

(Several of these photos were taken by my daughter and her boyfriend.)