Park of Bagatelle

The Count's plaything

 

Christened "Bagatelle", it was to become a location for festivities and a hunting meet. In 1770 Count Chimay, the chief huntsman of Count d'Artois, brother of Louis XVI became the owner. Invited by Chimay, Count d'Artois developed a passion for the estate and bought it in 1775. He demolished the now decaying folly and built another even grander and quite extraordinary castle. This saw the appearance of a fabulous estate with a landscaped park.

 

The cost of the work was estimated at over two million pounds.

 

Miraculously spared during the Revolution, Bagatelle experienced several fates: as a restaurant in 1797, then as a hunting meet under Napoléon, the estate being returned to the family of Count d'Artois under the Restoration.

Bagatelle was reborn when it was bought by Lord Seymour in 1835.

 

With the addition of a grand entrance on the park side, an orangery and new stables, the park was extended then transformed into the Jardin Napoléon III in the second half of the XIXth century.

Roses, Irises and Water Lilies

 

 

Sir Richard Wallace, the adopted son of Lord Seymour, had the Trianon built and the two present sentry pavilions and the two terraces which still exist.

 

In 1905 Bagatelle was sold to the City of Paris.

 

Just prior to its redevelopment, Bagatelle was a strange sight. A landscape where rivers, paths and beds of flowers, created in the XIXth century, softened the surprise effects of the pre-romantic gardens of the Count d'Artois without detracting from its spirit.

 

From 1905, the J.-C.-N. Forestier, the Commissioner of the Jardins de Paris, succeeded in retaining the garden's style whilst at the same time redeveloping it.

 

In order to make the public more aware of the growing popularity of horticulture, J.-C.-N. Forestier created temporary and permanent collections of horticultural plants.

 

He built the famous rose gardens, the iris garden and the presenters, designed a pond to improve the presentation of aquatic plants and water lilies which were so dear to the painter Claude Monet. In 1907 he organised the first international competition for new roses.

 

Exhibitions, concerts and various cultural events are periodically held in the castle and the magnificent Bagatelle gardens.

Address :

Bois de Boulogne, Sèvres-to-Neuilly road
75016 - PARIS

Metro : Porte Maillot
Bus : 244 et 43