Paris seen by a crow

Monday gardens- part 10

My unofficial artist residence of the unusual Parisian gardens ( thank you, again,

Amy Stewart

for the idea) continues. Of course winter might not be an ideal time for visiting gardens, but I find them a particular beauty. Still there was a rather long cold spell here and while I find sunlit cold days quite enjoyable- I’ve spent some time reading ( a very appropriate « Woman in the Polar Night » by Christiane Ritter for

Katherine May

’s book club) on a sunny bench in our local garden, breathing in frigid air. The last week the sky was this particular shade of pearl grey that enveloped everything in a frozen cloud.

Before the clouds has covered the sky…

So this time I’ve picked a garden to visit that offers shelter in the form of a few glass houses: Jardin des Plantes. I’ll, in fact, take you back here in February, when an annual orchids exhibition takes place in one of the glasshouses and we just might come back again for the gorgeous peonies in April. But before this luxury of colour I’d like to show you two unusual parts of the garden that have their particular beauty even in this visually barren season.

Jardin des Plantes ( the Botanical Garden) is situated in the Vth Arrondissement in between two major railway stations : Gare de Lyon and Gare d’Austerlitz. The Seine flows right nearby and the garden is large, taking up over 24 hectares.

The Botanical Garden was created in the XVIIth century- originally as a garden for medical purposes. Starting in 1793 the Museum of Natural History was created both as a museum and a research center. The Mineralogy Gallery, the Galleries of Evolution and of Paleontology and even the zoo that still exist in the Garden today are witnesses of this scientific mission established in the end of the XVIIIth century.

The central path of Jardin des Plantes. The palm trees and dinosaurs on both sides are part of a Christmas lights annual display.

As is often the case people coming into the garden follow the middle path. This layout is of course done by design because that path with its rectangular flower beds on each side offers a spectacular view on the Gallery of the Evolution. Each of the flower beds- five on each side of the path- is planted with colourful plants from March to November.

Yet, beyond this admittedly spectacular path, the garden holds a number of unusual places. More than the other gardens in Paris, for me at least, this one is marked by the presence of « arbres remarquables ». The « noble » trees that are remarquable by their age, size, history and/or the legend attached to them.

There is of course the « child » of the oldest tree in Paris that I wrote about in my last newsletter. It was planted by the son of the botanist in 1636 and I have to admit to not having been able to locate it so far. I’m not giving up, though. There is an ancient Lebanese cedar, brought in 1734 by a clumsy French botanist Bernard Jussieu. According to the legend, Jussieu has broken the pot in which he was transporting the seedling and had to carry the latter in his hat. The cedar now grows in the garden’s « labirynth » which we’re going to visit in the second part of these mini series.

Bernard Jussieu’s Cedar.

Right next to the Glass house grows a mimosa which is soon going to flower. A very slight pale yellow glow of its, as of yet closed, buds was a reminder to me that Spring is coming. When opened, the bright fluffy flowers announce the arrival of February with its winds and changing skies and the new kind of blue.

If you turn your back to the glass house and avoid the central alley way, you will enter the garden of the « Ecole de Botanique » (The School of Botany). It’s narrow paths will take you to yet another « noble » tree: a Japanese cherry tree. This one is quite exceptional and I’ll definitely add pictures when it will be in flower.

The Japanese Cherry tree.

The garden of the « Ecole de Botanique » is a narrow band of earth marked by two water basins where the crows swoop down to drink.

These incredibly smart birds have taken a particular liking to a few areas in Paris and Jardin des Plantes is among them. Smart as they are the crows can be quite a nuisance in the city: throwing garbage around, stealing food literally from the hands of the garden’s visitors and chasing away smaller birds. In order to deal with the problem the Mayor of Paris asked the scientists working in Jardin des Plantes to ring the birds in order to study their migration patterns. More than a 1000 crows have been ringed by now. A website -http://corneilles-paris.fr- is dedicated to the whole process and if you see a ringed crow ( and somehow manage to see the number on its ring- not sure how easy that is?), you can enter the data onto the site. It is actually quite fascinating to see how each bird is moving around.

So far the results of the study have shown that the crows are in fact incredibly smart and never stay for long in one place, one bird replacing the other. Thus making it very difficult to ontrol their population.

Sometimes I wonder whether it’s not the crows who are the real owners of the garden- free to go anywhere, getting a variety of food from the, «surprisingly « uncooperative, human visitors. The crows, I’m sure, bring the news of the outer world to the caged animals in the zoo. I can just imagine a large black bird perched on a railing of a cheetah’s cage, clearing its throat and starting with: « So, the Notre Dame Cathedral is now open… ».

But what I’ve found particularly gorgeous in this winter garden were the flowers that have kept their beauty, and the seeds, through the frost. The cold and grey air made the paths of the School of Botany garden appear more mystical and mysterious. The long stalks of the dried plants with their seed crowns looked embroidered on the landscape. Between the tall trees and the frozen ground these fine lines enlivened the fabric of the garden, they made it pulsate slightly.

This winter garden is a magical etching on the old yellowed paper. It becomes an extension of the Garden’s herbarium- a gorgeous collection of more than 150 000 species the variety of which that you can consult in the library of the Museum.

I ended my visit by stopping to look at a very special carrousel. One of the reasons Jardin des Plantes attracts so many visitors is because of the Galerie de l’Evolution. It houses a large collection of taxidermied animals ( that personally are not my cup of tea especially considering that in the same garden, a few meters from the Museum there is a zoo, where many of the same animals can be seen alive). The carrousel is a small extension of this Museum with its now extinct animals that carry the kids away into a very distant past.

And this is what I particularly like about this part of the garden- it is teeming with children. Both schools and parents bring their offspring to visit the Galeries of Evolution (and the often impressive exhibitions that it features- these ones very modern compared to the taxidermied animals on the floors above) and the zoo. The joyful kids, the picnic lunches eaten by the travellers from the two nearby train stations, the very smart crows animate this part of the garden as opposed to its more mysterious, higher up placed part that I will tell you more about over our next visit.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this read and this rather chilled walk through the Jardin des Plantes. Please, don’t hesitate to leave a comment, they always make me happy or a « heart » that allows more people discover these walks.

This week is my birthday and I’m very much looking forward to more wanderings around Paris and sharing them with all of you! If you feel so inclined as to encourage me during the aforementioned wanderings you can buy me a coffee here:

Buy me a coffee
but- most importantly- thank you for reading!