Page 161 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

HIDDEN GEM
Musée Zadkine
The former home of
Russian-born sculptor
Ossip Zadkine is now a
well-curated museum
devoted to his works
(www.zadkine.paris.fr).
The collection spans
the development of the
art ist’s style, from the
Cubism of his early work
to the Expressionism of
his final pieces.

rubble that was left over from
quarrying. In ancient Greece,
The evolution of animals, the original Mount Parnassus
two by two in the Musée was dedicated to poetry and
National d’Histoire Naturelle music. By the 19th century,
crowds were being drawn to
the local cabarets and bars.
physicians founded a medic­ Ménagerie le Zoo du Jardin The mixture of art and high
inal herb garden in 1626. A des Plantes living was especially potent
school of botany, natural his­ " ⌂ Avenue Daumesnil & in the 1920s and 1930s, when
tory and pharmacy followed. route de la Ceinture du Lac creative residents like Ernest
The gar den was opened to the # 9am–6pm daily (to 6:30pm Hemingway, Picasso, Cocteau
public in 1640, and now houses Sun & public hols) ∑ zoodu and Matisse called the area
the natural history museum, jardindesplantes.fr home. Today, the quartier is
a botanical school and the domi nated by the disliked
Ménagerie le Zoo du Jardin Tour Montpar nasse, although
des Plantes, one of the oldest 27 the view from the top (the
zoos in the world that houses 56th floor) is just spectacular.
a number of endangered Montparnasse
species. As well as fine vistas ⌂ 75014 & 75015 Tour Montparnasse
and walkways flanked by q Montparnasse, Vavin, ⌂ 33 avenue du Maine
statues, the park has an alpine Raspail, Edgar Quinet # 9:30am–11:30pm daily
garden and a display of herb a­ ∑ tourmontparnasse56.com
ceous and wild plants. A cedar The name Montparnasse was
of Lebanon, orig inally from first used ironically, when Visitors strolling along
Britain’s Kew Gardens, was the 17th­century arts students a grand avenue of trees
first to be planted in France. performed on a “mount” of in the Jardin des Plantes

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