The Luxembourg Garden
Categories : Leisure, published on : 4/6/23
The Luxembourg Garden
Just a 500-meter walk from the Hotel Jardin Le Bréa***sup, the Luxembourg Garden offer a verdant oasis in the heart of Paris's 6th arrondissement.
Marie de Medici, Queen of France and Navarre, wife of King Henry IV and mother of Louis XIII, acquired the estate from the Duke of Piney-Luxembourg in 1612, transforming its 8 hectares into the vast Florentine garden of her dreams.
The Luxembourg Garden subsequently underwent numerous transformations, culminating in Haussmann's urban renewal projects, which gave them their current layout.
Its shaded walkways, its French-style design, its lawns, its 106 statues including one of the copies of the Statue of Liberty, the series of twenty statues Queens of France and illustrious women, its gates, its orangery, its bandstand, its teaching apiary, its remarkable trees, its greenhouses housing rich horticultural collections, including no less than 400 species of orchids, and its Medici fountain make it the ideal place for a romantic stroll, a reading break or sunbathing.
The garden has also seduced many writers and artists over time. Watteau, Diderot, Rousseau, Delacroix who has his own fountain: the Monument to Eugène Delacroix, opposite the Petit Luxembourg, or Charles Baudelaire, Victor Hugo, Alfred de Musset, Emile Zola, Guy de Maupassant, Simone de Beauvoir or more recently Jacques Prévert, to name but a few, have fallen under the spell of the most romantic of Parisian gardens.
The Luxembourg Palace
The Senate, which owns the Luxembourg Garden, is housed in the Luxembourg Palace.
Bored at the Louvre Palace, Marie de Medici had it built after the death of Henry IV. Its architecture is reminiscent of the Pitti Palace in Florence, the queen's birthplace.
The first public venue for exhibiting paintings, the Palace became a prison during the French Revolution.
Today, political debates and legislative proceedings take place within its walls.
The Luxembourg Museum
The Luxembourg Museum is also located in the garden.
In 1750, it became the first French museum to open to the public, and in 1818, it became the first museum of contemporary art.
Originally, the museum was housed in a wing of the Luxembourg Palace. The current building dates from 1884.
The museum is managed by the Senate. It does not have a permanent collection but hosts major international temporary exhibitions organized by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais (National Museums Association – Grand Palais).
Located 500m from the Hotel Le Jardin Le Bréa, enjoy a moment of peace and nature outside of time to relax between two visits!
How to get to the Luxembourg Garden from the Hôtel Jardin Le Bréa?
Luxembourg Garden Conservation Office - 15, rue de Vaugirard, 75006 Paris
- From the Hôtel Jardin Le Bréa, walk down rue Bréa, then rue Vavin, and enter the Luxembourg Garden through the Porte Vavin.
The total walking time from our hotel is 5 minutes.
Practical Information
The Luxembourg Garden https://jardin.senat.fr/en.html
The Luxembourg Museum https://museeduluxembourg.fr/en
