I Found My Bliss... in the Jardin des Plantes of Paris

I had meant to feature this garden which I visited in May last year, in the year 2010 itself, but there were so many other posts that got me sidetracked. This will be the first in a series of features on gardens and flowers in Italy, France and Spain. The Mediterranean Cruise which I embarked on was in spring, and although this season was the best season for this garden-crazy, camera-clicking garden-blogger to see the Mediterranean,  it was actually coincidental - the happiest of coincidences as it turned out to be.

We hadn't actually decided to go to Paris on this trip, but made a decision while on the cruise, to spend five days in Paris. We booked a room in a hotel in Austerlitz, not far from the heart of Paris and when we got there, what do you know, we discovered that just next to our hotel was the famed Jardin des Plantes of Paris.





I found out that the Jardin des Plantes is the second-largest park on the left bank of the River Seine. It was founded in 1626, and the grounds hold four museums - the galleries of palaeontology, evolution, entomology and mineralogy. Of course I had to see...not any of the above museums, but the horticultural displays of  decorative plants!!!


The Jardin des Plantes attract young and old. What are they looking at?








They are reading the information on the cards. 








Statue of Buffon, one of the people who played a role in the history of the Jardin. 

There are thousands of species of plants including roses, irises, alpine and tropical plants. I zeroed in on the Iris Garden first.  I had never seen such displays of beauty before.  'Iris' was my first love there in Paris. I was besotted by her. Every where I turned her radiant smile, her regal bearing, her grace, all filled me with a sense of bliss. Heaven, I was in heaven...and the care that surrounded me prior to seeing her twirling and curtsying in the breeze, dissipated as if by magic. It was magic...being there in the Iris Garden. I was to revisit Iris often that magical spring.












Turning my attention away for a moment, I saw a bevy of beauties beckoning me from the Rose Garden. Ooh la la...Mademoiselle Rose in all her splendour. So this is what La vie en Rose is all about.The rouge on her face was as captivating as the perfume on her dress. She was the girl next door, the dancer from Moulin Rouge, the chic Parisienne model, all rolled into one.( I am referring to the roses of course, not to Rosie over there looking so happy to be among the French beauties).







    












The belles of Jardin des Plantes in Paris will always have a place in my heart, and in my dreams.