Parc Monceau Part I

Jas & I spent a quiet morning having a picnic together at Parc Monceau yesterday. Though, I only managed a 3-hours sleep before that, I didn't feel tired (I must be sleeping too much.. lol). The weather was great with an abundance of sunshine and an almost cloudless sky.

The Corinthian Pillars, Parc Monceau

The park was established by Phillippe d'Orléans, Duke of Chartres, a cousin of the king. He started buying land on which to establish the garden in 1769, and employed Louis Carrogis Carmontelle to design the gardens. He was a close friend of the Prince of Wales, later George IV, and a lover of all things English. As a result, his aim was to create an informal English-style garden in the middle of Paris. By 1778, through successive purchases, the garden had grown to 12 hectares. It became known as the Folie de Chartres.

The park is unusual in France due to its "English" style: its informal layout, curved walkways and randomly-placed statues distinguish it from the more traditional, French-style garden. It also includes a collection of scaled-down architectural features — including an Egyptian pyramid, a Chinese fort, a Dutch windmill, and Corinthian pillars. A number of these are masonic references, reflecting the fact that Philippe d'Orléans was a leading freemason. The park includes statues of famous French figures including Guy de Maupassant, Frédéric Chopin, Charles Gounod, Ambroise Thomas and Edouard Pailleron.

During the French revolution of 1793 the Duke was executed by guillotine, and the garden was taken into public ownership. The Farmer's General Enclosure of Paris surrounded the park. At this time, the rotunda was built by Claude Nicolas Ledoux.

In 1797, it was the site of the first silk parachute jump, when André-Jacques Garnerin jumped from a Montgolfier hot air balloon, landing in the park where a large crowd was gathered.

It was the site of a massacre in 1871 following the formation of the Commune. The Versailles troops directed by Napoleon III eventually took back the city and slaughtered all remnants of the Communards during La Semaine sanglante ("The Bloody Week"). Parc Monceau, like several other public spaces, was the site of the killing of many of these proponents of the commune.

Source: Wikipedia

Having our picnic under the shade of this tree.

It seemed to be a short few hours spent in the middle of some Roman empire ruins, especially with the Corinthian Pillars right in front of us. More pics coming up in the next post.