June 2026
The Jardin des Serres d’Auteuil is located in the 16th arrondissement, a few minutes from the Bois de Boulogne.
The site first served as a botanical garden in 1761 under Louis XV.
This iteration dates to 1898, when the City of Paris decided to build new greenhouses there to produce plants for the capital’s parks and gardens.
The project was entrusted to architect Jean-Camille Formigé, whose design is characteristic of late-19th-century metal architecture, featuring a large central greenhouse surrounded by several pavilions.
Today, the greenhouses produce about 100,000 plants per year for the interior decoration of municipal buildings.
Within the grounds is the Garden of Poets, created in 1954. Along the path are scattered plaques bearing verses from various French poets.
*
A statue of Joseph Étienne Frédéric Mistral sits in the middle of the lawn. Mistral received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature “in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist”.
The Masks
Designed by the architect, there are 14 masks around the park. Although, by what I could discern, there weren’t fourteen separate designs. The decorations around the masks represent the marine life, such as corals and shells, that are visible in the limestone found in the garden.
