Royal Palaces and Parks of FranceMansfield, M. F. (Milburg Francisco)
History
Royal Palaces and Parks of France
Mansfield, M. F. (Milburg Francisco)
Architecture -- France; Landscape architecture -- France; Palaces -- France; Parks -- France
Plans for rebuilding the Place du Carrousel provide for a division into
three distinct parts, three grand _pelouses_, _a boulingrins a la
Francais_, or lawns of a circumscribed area, according to the best
traditions of Le Notre, a border of flowers and a few decoratively
disposed clumps of flowering shrubs, the whole combined in such a way
that the perspective and vista down the Champs Elysees will in no manner
suffer. The architect-landscapist, M. Redon, who has been charged with
the work, has drawn his inspiration from a series of unexecuted designs
of Le Notre which have recently been brought to light from the innermost
depths of the national archives. It was a safe way of avoiding an
anachronism, and this time a government architect has chosen well his
plan of execution.
In later years the question of the reembellishment of the Garden of the
Tuileries has ever been before the public, but little has actually been
changed save the remaking of certain garden plots, the planting of a few
shrubs or the placing of a few statues.
The Garden of the Tuileries has a superficial area of 232,632 square
metres. It is the most popular of all open spaces in the capital to the
Parisian who would take his walks abroad not too far from the centre of
things. The chief curiosity of the garden is the celebrated chestnut
tree which burst into flower on the day of Napoleon's arrival from
Elba--March 20. The precocious tree has ever been revered by the
Bonapartists since, though the tree has never performed the trick the
second time.
Statues innumerable are scattered here and there through the garden and
give a certain sense of liveliness to the area. Some are by famous
names, others by those less renowned, but as a whole they make little
impression on one, chiefly, perhaps, because one does not come to the
Garden of the Tuileries to see statues.
To the left and right are the terraces, first laid out by the celebrated
Le Notre. Like the hanging gardens of Babylon, they overlook a lower
level of _parterres_, gravelled walks and ornamental waters. Along the
Rue de Rivoli is the Terrasse de l'Orangerie, and on the side of the
river is the Terrasse de la Marine.
According to the original plans of Le Notre the garden was set down as
five hundred _toises_ in length, and one hundred and sixty-eight
_toises_ in width, the latter dimension corresponding to that of the
facade of the palace.
Along the shady avenues of this admirable city garden of to-day an
enterprising _concessionaire_ has won a fortune by renting out
rush-bottomed chairs to nursemaids, retired old gentlemen with red
ribbons in their buttonholes, and trippers from across the channel. It
is a perfectly legitimate enterprise and a profitable one it would seem,
and has been in operation considerably more than half a century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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