A Tropical Greenhouse Hidden in Paris
What to do on a Summer Afternoon in Paris
Most visitors would likely spend their last afternoon in Paris sipping wine on a café terrace or shopping along the Champs-Élysées. Instead, we spent ours photographing a tropical forest in the city. After a week walking the streets of Paris, browsing markets, wandering through Montmartre and strolling the banks of Canal Saint-Martin, we were ready for a slower pace.
Paris is lovely to the eye, but can be overwhelming to the senses. The crowds, the noise, and the sheer relentlessness of the streets eventually became overstimulating, and a quiet afternoon at Jardin des Plantes turned out to be exactly what we needed.
We had a few hours free before catching the train back to Amsterdam, so we visited the Jardin des Plantes botanical garden and its 19th-century greenhouse. Luckily, it was just enough time to film a photowalk too!
A Brief History of the Jardin des Plantes
One of the world's oldest botanical gardens, Jardin des Plantes, was founded in 1635 originally as a royal medicinal herb garden. Almost 400 years later, it remains an active scientific center where botanists conduct climate research and plant conservation.
Covering 68 acres and home to over 20,000 species, the garden pairs beauty with scientific intent. There's a quiet sense of purpose to the layout that you don't find in purely decorative gardens. I love spending time in lush spaces like this; being surrounded by an abundance of plants naturally helps us slow down, breathe deeply, and reset our nervous systems.
Inside the Grandes Serres Greenhouse
Built in the 1830s, the Grandes Serres is a world of its own. From the moment you step inside, the city noise fades. The air shifts, becoming warm, humid, and thick with an earthy scent. Plants from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania fill one continuous room: towering palms, banana trees, giant ferns, orchids, and cycads, a plant group so ancient it predates the dinosaurs!
Looking up through the canopy of leaves is a delightful view, too. Light filters down softly through old glass set in a geometric iron frame, and the organic tangle of plants made for some of my favorite shots of the whole trip. I kept finding myself drawn to the natural contrast of deep greens and vibrant pinks and pops of purple, the way each leaf has its own character, creating natural frames within the frame.
Like a city, a garden has its own rhythm and movement, but it's one that invites you to slow down, notice the details, and leave feeling a little more connected to the earth. I think that’s a much-needed antidote to today’s hectic, demanding world.
Above: Moments from our walk along Canal Saint Martin.
Below: Scenes from our photowalk in Montmartre.
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Have tips to share about Paris? Leave a comment below. I'd love to hear what you recommend for my next visit.
