Tuileries Garden

The ground was a clay pit with tile kilns, tuileries, until Catherine de Medici built a palace here in 1564; Andre Le Notre redesigned the garden in 1664, before his work at Versailles, imposing the central axis, terraces and geometry that survive. That axis continues west through the Concorde obelisk and the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe and beyond, forming the historic axis of Paris. The palace burned in the Commune of 1871 and was demolished, so the garden now runs straight into the Louvre. Two ponds hold the same movable chairs as the Luxembourg, and sculpture by Maillol, Giacometti and Rodin stands among the trees.

History

In 1564 Catherine de' Medici bought land west of Paris, outside the wall of Charles V, where tile kilns, tuileries, had stood since the 13th century, and built a new palace there; the Florentine Bernard de Carnesse laid out an Italian Renaissance garden five hundred metres long and three hundred wide, with lawns, flower beds, kitchen gardens, a labyrinth and a grotto with faience by Bernard Palissy. The garden was pillaged in the religious wars of 1588, and from 1595 Henry IV and his gardener Claude Mollet restored it, planting mulberries for silkworms and building an ornamental lake fed from the Samaritaine pump of 1608. It opened to the public in 1667, became a public park after the Revolution, spread into the Place du Carrousel after the main block of the palace was pulled down in the 1880s, and in 2024 held the Olympic and Paralympic cauldron (Wikipedia, Tuileries Garden).

What to look for

• Le Notre's axis - the central line running west toward the Arc de Triomphe.
• The round and octagonal ponds - basins with movable chairs around them.
• The sculpture - Maillol, Rodin and modern works among the plantings.
• The missing palace - open ground where the Tuileries palace stood until 1871.

When to go

April to October; a funfair runs along the northern side in summer. The garden is a through-route between the Louvre and Concorde and is busy at all hours in season.

Good to know

The gravel is dusty and hard walking. Shade is limited in the formal sections. The summer funfair changes the character of the northern half considerably.

Nearby

The Louvre lies east; the Orangerie is at the western corner.

Key facts