Paris's botanical garden, at the bottom of the Latin Quarter by the Seine — free to walk into, with the natural history galleries and a small menagerie inside it. It is also where George Orwell spent one of the worst days of his Paris poverty, too hungry to think about anything but food.
The Jardin des Plantes is the city's botanical garden, laid out on the left bank at the eastern edge of the Latin Quarter. It began in 1635 as a royal garden of medicinal plants and became public property during the Revolution. Today it holds the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle's galleries, a menagerie, greenhouses and a long formal alley of planted beds, and walking through the garden itself costs nothing.
It appears in the literature of Paris in an unexpected way. In Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell and his friend Boris reach the end of their money entirely. They buy half a pound of bread and a piece of garlic to rub on it — Orwell explains that the taste lingers and gives you the illusion of having eaten recently — and then they come here, because sitting in a garden is free.[1]
"We sat most of that day in the Jardin des Plantes," he writes. "Boris had shots with stones at the tame pigeons, but always missed them, and after that we wrote dinner menus on the backs of envelopes. We were too hungry even to try and think of anything except food."
It is one of the most exact things in the book about being poor in a rich city: the public garden as the one place you are allowed to be when you have nothing, and hunger narrowing the mind until the only entertainment left is writing out meals you cannot buy.[2]
The garden has changed less than most of Orwell's Paris. The alleys, the beds and the menagerie are where they were, and the pigeons are still tame.[3]
Founded as the royal garden of medicinal plants.
Becomes public property and the seat of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.
Orwell and Boris, out of money, spend a day here writing imaginary dinner menus on envelopes.
Down and Out in Paris and London is published, with the garden scene in it.
The garden itself is free to walk through. The natural history galleries, the menagerie and the greenhouses inside it are separately ticketed, so you can spend an afternoon there without paying anything if you stay outdoors.
Paris's botanical garden, in the 5th arrondissement at the eastern end of the Latin Quarter. It started in 1635 as a royal garden of medicinal plants, became public in 1793, and now surrounds the galleries of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.
In Down and Out in Paris and London, Orwell and his friend Boris — down to their last centimes — buy bread and a piece of garlic and spend the day sitting here, writing dinner menus on the backs of envelopes because they were too hungry to think about anything else. It is one of the book's sharpest passages about being poor in a rich city.
An hour is enough for the garden alone. Add a couple more if you want the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution, which is the strongest of the museum buildings. It pairs naturally with a walk along the Seine or up into the Latin Quarter.
Setting of the story
The day Orwell and Boris run out of money entirely: bread rubbed with garlic, stones thrown at the tame pigeons, and dinner menus written on the backs of envelopes because they were too hungry to think about anything else.
Visited by · 1929
As Down and Out in Paris and London has it, Orwell and Boris reached the end of their money, bought half a pound of bread and a piece of garlic to rub on it, and spent the day here: "We sat most of that day in the Jardin des Plantes... we wrote dinner menus on the backs of envelopes. We were too hungry even to try and think of anything except food."
Paul Cézanne's Left Bank address in 1872 — the year his son Paul was born, and the year he went out to Pontoise to work beside Camille Pissarro, which changed his painting completely.
Visit the place
Ernest Hemingway and Hadley Richardson's first Paris apartment, on the fifth floor with no running water. He describes it in the opening pages of the book.
Visit the place
The small square at the top of the rue Mouffetard, a minute from Ernest Hemingway's first flat — now one of the quarter's prettiest corners. The novel visits it after dark.
Visit the place
The Île Saint-Louis apartment of the cosmetics magnate and collector Helena Rubinstein, whose gatherings Marc Chagall attended — one of the private rooms where the École de Paris was actually bought.
Visit the placeThe sources below include histories, archival materials, scholarly research, and official records that informed this page. They document Jardin des Plantes, the people connected to it, and its place in Paris.
The garden scene: the bread and garlic, the tame pigeons, and the dinner menus written on envelopes.
Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Jardin des Plantes page.
Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Jardin des Plantes page.
Map data used to verify addresses, geographic coordinates, and the placement associated with Jardin des Plantes.
These references provide the documented foundation for this page's history and context. Claim-level citations remain attached to the specific claims they support.
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The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.
