The 10 most beautiful gardens in Paris

Whether you are looking for somewhere to enjoy a stroll, have a picnic, let your children play or simply relax on the grass, there is always a good reason to visit the gardens of Paris. Here are some of the most peaceful places to spend your time.

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• The Jardin du Luxembourg
• The Jardin des Plantes
• Parc des Buttes Chaumont
• Parc de Belleville
• The National Archives Garden
• The Jardin Catherine Labouré
• The romantic garden of Parc de Bercy
• Parc Monceau
• The Jardin des Tuileries
• The Jardin des Serres d’Auteuil 

The most famous garden in Paris! The Jardin du Luxembourg, located in the heart of the very elegant 6^th arrondissement, is beautifully planted. In addition to its statues and two sculpted fountains, it is also home to an orchard, a rose garden and multiple greenhouses.

You can while away the afternoon sitting on one of its many chairs, honing your skills at the chess tables or reading on the grass.

This 23-hectare garden just steps from the Gare d’Austerlitz is an open-air botanical museum. It contains several thousand varieties of plants and flowers! We like to take a stroll through this garden before heading to the garden of the School of Botany.

Children will also love the menagerie where you can see red pandas, snow leopards and even orangutans! In the winter, the Jardin des Plantes is lit up with magical illuminations.

First-time visitors to the Parc des Buttes Chaumont are amazed by its hills, leftovers from old quarry mining activity on the site. The hilly landscape makes this a perfect place to lie down on the grass and relax with a stunning view of Paris!

But that’s not all. With its exotic trees, caves, waterfalls, floating bridge and manmade lake, it feels like something from the Far East. It’s almost enough to make you forget you are in Paris’ 19^th arrondissement!

Located just a 10-minute walk south of Buttes Chaumont, Parc de Belleville could almost be its little brother. This equally hilly park even offers a lookout point at its summit, from which you can contemplate the city of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. 

Enjoy the zig-zagging paths lined with flowerbeds and shaded by the trees as you walk back down the hill.  Also worth noting are the creative play area and surprising art installations.

These gardens are so well hidden that even many Parisians don’t know they exist. To be fair, they have only been open to the public since 2011, and are tucked away behind a thick stone wall in the heart of Paris.

But these four small gardens around the National Archives are a sight to behold. They are home to lilac bushes, peonies, fuchsias, flowering shrubs and plenty of grass where you can sit and relax. This calm setting invites some to while away the afternoon cuddling with their special someone.

This is another well-kept secret! This garden connected to the Daughters of Charity convent is found halfway between Les Invalides and the Jardin du Luxembourg. It is home to a vast lawn edged with linden trees and poplars, as well as grapevines climbing the walls and even a vegetable garden!

Legend has it that the Virgin Mary appeared to Catherine Labouré, a farmer from Bourgogne, in 1830 in the chapel at 140 Rue du Bac, right next door to this idyllic setting. This notable event gave the garden its current name.

In the bustling quarter of Bercy, where the streets are filled with a constant flow of businesspeople and shoppers, there is nothing like a break in the romantic garden of Parc de Bercy. It is tucked away between the Joseph Kessel pedestrian bridge and the Cour Saint-Emilion.

If you do visit this park, which features a mix of small ponds and patches of grass, make sure to take a moment to watch the ducks paddling around amongst the lily pads. The bucolic charm of the location is amplified by the majestic willow and oak trees.

The elegant Parc Monceau, a sort of mirror image of the Jardin du Luxembourg in northern Paris, lends itself to daydreaming. Marcel Proust used to enjoy walking in this park. Its flower-lined paths and hundred-year-old trees still set this park apart today.

One notable example is an Old World sycamore that is 200 hundred years old and seven metres wide! Children can play around the manmade pond while parents enjoy a picnic on the lawn. The timeless charm of this spot makes it well worth a visit.

No matter how many times you visit, the Jardin des Tuileries never ceases to impress. Its location, between the Louvre and Place de la Concorde, is hard to ignore.

To take full advantage of this site, enjoy a cup of coffee from one of the small kiosks in the garden, then pull up a seat on one of the countless chairs set up around the ponds and fountains. Then indulge yourself with some of the best people-watching Paris has to offer! The park is especially popular with tourists, athletic types and boules players.

This garden located on the fringe of the Bois de Boulogne has been charming lovers of botany since the 18^th century. And we’re sure it will continue to do so for many more years! In June 2019, six new greenhouses were added to the five original buildings.

You can take in the sight of 6000 plant varieties from all over the world, from Canary Island palms to New Caledonia succulents: the explosion of colours and scents will transport you to far-off climes!