INTERVIEW
After two and a half months of closure, the parks and gardens reopened on Saturday in Paris. Almost simultaneously, Alain Baraton, the chief gardener of the Palace of Versailles, released on June 3 a book dedicated to all these Parisian green spaces, entitled Mes jardins de Paris and published by Grasset editions. From the Buttes-Chaumont park to the Elysée garden, he reveals some secrets about the capital's lungs at the microphone of Europe 1.
The bloody past of Buttes-Chaumont Park
If today, the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont is one of the most visited gardens in the capital, for example, it has a very dark past behind it. For Alain Baraton, it is "a place that was built in an unlikely place, the worst place in the capital". Indeed, at the beginning of the last century, "we buried corpses in quantity".
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Death, in all its forms, had taken over this garden. "It was at Buttes-Chaumont that the gallows of Monfauçon were erected. They executed all those condemned to death," said Alain Baraton, who lists all the macabre events that have occurred there. "There have also been fights and suicides," he said, adding that "the big bridge over the lake was called in the 1900s 'The suicide bridge'".
The Garden of Plants or the cemetery for the victims of Landru
The Jardin des Plantes also has an inglorious past. Especially because he has troubled links with the famous serial killer Landru. "The victims of Landru rest in the Garden of plants in a place still unknown," he reveals. "An expert from the Natural History Museum had been appointed by the court to assess the ashes [of the victims]. He did so and kept the exhibit at home while he was housed in the Garden of Plants" , says Alain Baraton.
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The fate of these ashes would have been decided at the time of retirement of this specialist. "He colluded with the chief gardener, buried victims of Landru under a support" now disappeared, says Alain Baraton.
An insect and beehive hotel in the Elysée garden
In the capital, there are also gardens that are closed to the public, such as the Hôtel de Matignon park, which covers "three hectares" and which can only be visited on rare occasions. "These gardens of ministries show that finally, the Republic has monopolized the goods of the monarchy. All the great state palaces today are former aristocratic residences", assures the chief gardener of the Palace of Versailles.
Alain Baraton cites the park of the Ministry of Agriculture, or that of the Environment, which house "magnificent gardens", according to him. Sometimes these parks also host treasures of biodiversity. "The Élysée has one of the biggest plane trees in Paris on its lawn, a small insect hotel and a few beehives", reveals Alain Baraton.
The dean of Parisian trees in the René Viviani square
If the vast Parisian gardens hold many secrets, the squares and avenues are not to be outdone. Alain Baraton emphasizes, for example, that avenue Foch has "700 trees" on these back alleys. Another anecdote: the René Viviani square, located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, on the banks of the Seine, "shelters the oldest tree in Paris", according to the gardener. It is a "locust", more commonly called acacia.
"It was planted 400 years ago by Jean Robin, the man who gave it his name," he said. "You imagine if this tree which is located right next to Notre-Dame de Paris could evoke all that he saw?", Questions the gardener. "Imagine the stories he would have to tell us ..."