Jardin des Plantes

It began in 1635 as Louis XIII's royal garden of medicinal plants and opened to the public in 1640. It is home to the National Museum of Natural History, and naturalists such as Buffon, Lamarck and Cuvier worked here. A cedar of Lebanon planted in 1734 still grows here.

The Grand Gallery of Evolution, in an 1889 building, shows a parade of life-size stuffed animals under an iron-and-glass hall. There are also large tropical glasshouses, a rose garden, palaeontology galleries and a menagerie from 1794, one of the world's oldest zoos.