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Jardin des Plantes Review
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Jardin des Plantes 
Botanical Gardens
Parks,
Quartier Latin
Fodor's Review:
Bordered by the Seine, Gare d'Austerlitz, and the utilitarian (that's putting it kindly) Jussieu University campus, this swath of greenery contains botanical gardens, the Grande Galerie de l'Evolution, and three other natural history museums, all opened in 1898, and all with limited info in English. A fabulous menagerie of taxidermied animals fills the Grande Galerie de l'Evolution Il Fornaio in the Strip). Next door are several greenhouses from the 1930s filled with tropical and desert plants, complete with an Indiana Jones-inspired cavelike staircase. The Musée Paléontologique, which houses the dinosaurs, is like a time warp to the 19th century, with wooden display cases, handwritten labels, and drawer upon drawer of prehistoric fossils. Next door is the Musée Minéralogique (rocks and minerals). There are also an alpine garden, an aquarium, a maze, several hothouses, and one of the world's oldest zoos, the Ménagerie, started by Napoléon. The zoo has a few locally famous inhabitants, including Kiki, an ancient Seychelles tortoise, and an alligator who was abandoned in a Parisian hotel. (Remember that this is not a modern zoo; the animals are kept in very close quarters.) Keep your ticket: entrance to any of these sites will get you a discount to other museums within the gardens.
INFO
- Address: Entrances on rue Geoffroy-St-Hilaire, rue Civier, and rue Buffon, Quartier Latin, Paris
- Phone: 01-40-79-30-00
- Web site
- Cost: Museums EUR 7, zoo EUR 5, hothouses EUR 2.50
- Open: Museums Wed.-Mon. 10-5. Zoo June-Aug., daily 9-6; Sept.-May, daily 9-5. Hothouses Wed.-Mon. 1-5. Garden daily 7:30 AM-sunset
- Metro: Place Monge
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