This is the second in a series of posts about Paris’s many wonderful parks and gardens. In our last post, the first in the series, we took you on a photo tour of Luxembourg Gardens. If you didn’t see that post, judging from the feedback we received it’s well worth it. In this post we’ll take you to the beautiful gardens of the Palais-Royal and show them to you through the seasons, from the wonderful magnolias, daffodils and flowering chestnut trees in spring, through the extraordinary roses of summer, all the way to the stark beauty of the gardens in winter, especially in the snow.
One of the beautiful, deep purple magnolias in bloom in the Palais-Royal gardens with the palace in the background.
The Palais-Royal is on rue Saint-Honoré just opposite the Louvre. The palace was built in the 1630s for Cardinal Richelieu and was in fact originally known as the Palais-Cardinal. Cardinal Richelieu bequeathed it to Louis XIII and so it became a royal palace with its current name. Louis XIV in turn gave it to the Doc d’Orleans. Nowadays the palace houses the Ministry of Culture, the Conseil d’État and the Conseil Constitutionnel. The palace gardens are a public park, popular all year around. The gardens are bordered by arcades with shops and restaurants. The palace Courtyard of Honor is famous for the Buren Columns, an installation of black and white striped columns of different heights, and two fountains with polished metal spheres of different sizes, all of which we will show you later. But first, some spring!
Spring in the Palais-Royal Gardens begins with daffodils, hyacinths and a large number of spectacular magnolia trees. The buildings around the gardens form a wonderful backdrop to the magnolia trees (speaking from a photographer’s point of view).
The tulips and flowering pink chestnut trees follow in the wake of the daffodils and magnolias, making for an unparalleled run of spring bloom with every day different from the last.
As spring starts to turn into summer, the roses begin to bloom and transform the park into a beautiful rose garden.
Autumn is a perfect time to visit the Palais-Royal Gardens. The flowers of the season are white Japanese anemones and magenta dahlias.
When autumn fades into winter, the gardens take on a whole different look. The bare trees form stark patterns against the sky, buildings and pathways. It’s a beautiful sight in its own way.
And then on lucky years there is some snow which again transforms the gardens and courtyards and even the arcades completely.
Which brings us to the courtyard and arcades which are really an integral part of these gardens. They are beautifully designed and built, and the views and perspectives are the work of farsighted and brilliant architect minds (particularly from a photographer’s point of view:-)).
We’ve said it before – parks are for people. And, most of the time, despite the impression created by some of the photos above, there are people at the Palais-Royal Gardens, enjoying the architecture, trees and flowers, having a meal outside one of the restaurants in the arcades, walking dogs, playing pétanque (boules) taking photos and generally enjoying the wonderful environment.
Well, there you are! The Palais-Royal Gardens, wonderful at any time of year. Small enough to wander through quickly while you’re on your way to somewhere else. Large enough to provide hours of enjoyment and relaxation. We hope you can appreciate why they rank among our favorite Paris parks and gardens.
There are many images in this Journal post. Some of them are already listed in our shop and are for purchase as prints or canvases. If they are listed, you can click on them and go straight through to the listing. However, the majority of these images have not found their way into the shop yet and may never do so. That doesn’t mean they are not available. Any of the images in the post can be purchased as prints or canvases in the usual range of sizes. So if you would like any of the images but cannot click on them and go to a listing, please contact us by email and let us know what you would like. Screen shots work well to identify the images.
We hope you have enjoyed the tour of the Palais-Royal Gardens and that this post will inspire you to visit or revisit.
Please leave a comment below. We like to hear from you.
À bientôt,
The Parisian Moments Team