Tuileries Gardens
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Jardin des Tuileries

Extending for around 1km from the place de la Concorde to the Louvre, the Jardin des Tuileries is the formal French garden par excellence, forming the splendid backdrop to many a Parisian Sunday promenade. The grand central alley is lined with shady, clipped chestnuts and manicured lawns, and framed at each end by ornamental pools, surrounded by an impressive gallery of statues (by the likes of Rodin, Coustou and Coysevox) brought here from Versailles and Marly (Louis XIV's retreat from Versailles, no longer in existence), though many are copies, the originals having been transferred to the Louvre. The much sought-after chairs strewn around the ponds are a good spot from which to admire the statues, watch children chase boats around the pond and observe promenading Parisians. There are also a number of cafés nestling among the trees, ideal retreats on sunny days when the glare of the sun on the gravel of the central alley can be quite dazzling.

The garden's history actually goes back to the 1570s when Catherine de Médicis had the site cleared of the medieval warren of tilemakers (tuileries) that stood here to make way for a palace and grounds. The Palais des Tuileries, as it became known, was surrounded with formal vegetable gardens, a labyrinth and a chequerboard of flowerbeds. The present layout however is largely the work of the landscape architect Le Nôtre, who was commissioned by Louis XIV a hundred years later to redesign the gardens on a grander scale. Employing techniques perfected at Versailles, Le Nôtre took the opportunity to further indulge his passion for symmetry, straight avenues, formal flowerbeds and splendid vistas. During the eighteenth century, the gardens were where flash Parisians came to preen and party, and in 1783 the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Etienne, launched the first successful hot air balloon here. The first serious replanting was carried out after the Revolution, and in the nineteenth century, rare species were added to the garden, by this time dominated by chestnut trees. Sadly, some of the oldest specimens were lost in the December 1999 storms: the centennial chestnuts around the two central oval ponds are now the most senior.

At the eastern end of the gardens in front of the Louvre is the Jardin du Carrousel, a raised terrace where the Palais des Tuileries, burnt down by the Communards in 1871, was sited. It's now planted with trim yew hedges, between which stand oddly static bronzes of buxom female nudes by Maillol.

The two buildings flanking the garden at the western, Concorde end, are the Orangerie, by the river, and the Jeu de Paume, by rue de Rivoli (Tues noon–9.30pm, Wed–Fri noon–7pm, Sat & Sun 10am–7pm; €6; M° Concorde), once a royal tennis court and the place where French Impressionist paintings were displayed before being transferred to the Musée d'Orsay. In a subsequent renovation, huge windows were cut into the Jeu de Paume's classical temple walls, allowing light to flood in, and it's now one of the city's best exhibition spaces for contemporary art – usually major retrospectives of established artists.

The Orangerie, a private art collection including many of Monet's large waterlily paintings, is currently closed for renovation and due to reopen in the summer of 2004. Work is underway to convert many of the existing exterior walls to glass, in line with Monet's request that as much natural light as possible reach his masterpieces. The rest of the collection, featuring works by Renoir, Sisley, Matisse, Cézanne, Utrillo, Modigliani and Soutine, will be rearranged and possibly added to from the collection's reserves.