{"id":17618,"date":"2013-01-01T18:33:17","date_gmt":"2013-01-01T17:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=17618"},"modified":"2013-01-30T23:19:15","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T22:19:15","slug":"a-mysterious-little-garden-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/a-mysterious-little-garden-in-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"A Mysterious Little “English Garden” in Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"File:Parc<\/a><\/p>\n

Although the<\/strong> Parc Monceau<\/strong><\/em> is wide open to the general public, it is\u00a0certainly the “weirdest” park in Paris, and that is on more than a single level!<\/p>\n

Curiously enough, next to it stands a small edifice where it is said that a fifth-generation park watchmen closely monitor its nine gated entries.<\/p>\n

What is so special about this park that it prompts such a longstanding high-level of vigilance, unlike other prominent gardens scattered throughout Paris?<\/p>\n

\"File:Louis<\/a><\/p>\n

The answer can probably be identified based on the backdrop story of the park, facetiously nicknamed “the Folly of the Duke of Chartres<\/strong>“, in reference to the famous (or make that “infamous”, actually) Phillippe d’Orl\u00e9ans, Duke of Chartres<\/strong> and then Duke of Orleans.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Remember this Duke?<\/p>\n

The state of New Orleans<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in the\u00a0United States<\/strong>\u00a0was named after his own papi<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(grandpa), no less.<\/p>\n

But that is not his only claim to fame.<\/p>\n

We actually mentioned him extensively in “Basta with Bastille Day<\/a><\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

The Duke d’Orleans was le cousin<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>of the King Louis XVI<\/strong>, who was famously beheaded during the French Revolution along with his wife Marie-Antoinette <\/strong>(and no, the poor lady never said “Let them eat cake.<\/strong>” The Parisian people started to starve because the wretched Duke d’Orelans\u00a0was discreetly stashing the country’s wheat<\/strong>\u00a0and barley<\/strong> in the Isle of Man<\/strong> on the English Channel<\/strong>. The reason? To engineer wide social unrest throughout the French capital, before openly claiming the French throne for himself.)<\/p>\n

To keep a long story short, the French King lost his head thanks to the machinations of none other than his own cousin, the Duke, who was acting on direct orders from the city of London<\/strong>, as it turned out.<\/p>\n

\"Monet's

Monet's "Parc Monceau", 1878<\/p><\/div>\n

Already at the age of 22<\/strong>, encouraged by some highly established mandarins of the British East India Company<\/strong>\u00a0to whom he ended up owing tremendous amounts of money (Monsieur le Duc<\/strong><\/em> was indeed a compulsive gambler, a notorious\u00a0habitu\u00e9<\/em><\/strong> of the London casinos, a real-life “Duke of Hazard<\/strong>“), he purchased the land that hosts the park today.<\/p>\n

A park which he fittingly and rather unimaginatively called “English Garden<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Highly impressed by the English gardens that were famous for their “irregular” and “asymmetric” shapes (the exact meaning of the word “Baroque<\/a><\/em><\/strong>“), the Duke\u00a0wanted his\u00a0parc Monceau<\/strong><\/em> to mirror the gardens of the\u00a0Stowe House<\/strong> in England<\/strong>, which belonged to a relative and close ally of his political master\u00a0William Pitt the Younger<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n
\u00a0Stowe House and gardens, England<\/strong><\/div>\n

Comparable places to the Stowe House, called “follies<\/a><\/strong>” (think of the French word “folie<\/a><\/em><\/strong>“, meaning “madness<\/strong>“) had already existed in France: the\u00a0Folie Saint James<\/strong><\/em> and the\u00a0Desert de Retz<\/strong><\/em> in Chambroucy<\/strong>,\u00a0to name only these two (both of them are located on the extension of the so-called “Axe historique<\/em><\/strong>“, which appears to be pointing towards the UK<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

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The "Axe historique": A compass needle pointing towards the city of London? (Picture from Wikipedia)<\/p><\/div>\n

But that clearly didn’t seem to be enough for the Duke, who\u00a0insisted on establishing his own “folly” upon Parisian land.<\/p>\n

\"photo\"<\/p>\n

One object that stands out prominently in the whole park, and which may actually offer a hint as to why the garden is deemed o’ so “special”, is a mini Egyptian-style pyramid<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

Indeed, the excessive infatuation with Egyptian mythology\u00a0running deep among some French circles is nothing new.<\/p>\n

\"photo\"<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n

Think of the\u00a0Obelisk of Louxor<\/strong> in la Place de la Concorde<\/em><\/strong>, installed by non other than the son of the Duke d’Orleans who eventually became French King Louis-Philippe<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>(the obelisk was set exactly where the\u00a0guillotine<\/strong><\/em> was previously installed during the French Revolution), and the sphinx statues in\u00a0Ch\u00e2telet <\/strong><\/em>and the jardin des<\/em>\u00a0Tuileries<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

More recently, former President Fran\u00e7ois<\/strong>\u00a0Mitterrand<\/strong> erected two giant glass pyramids within the Louvre<\/strong>—allegedly to celebrate the bicentennial<\/strong> of the French Revolution, which, as we saw in an earlier post<\/a><\/strong>, took a turn for the worse -bloody guillotine campaigns and all- under the aegis of the Duke d’Orleans and his British masterminds.<\/p>\n

\"photo\"<\/p>\n

Another interesting yet usually unknown detail: Mitterrand’s controversial\u00a0grande pyramide<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0in the Louvre is perfectly aligned with the nearby Palais Royal,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0namely the Duke’s main residence, and the headquarters of his\u00a0jacobins <\/em><\/strong>hords,\u00a0whom he unleashed upon the streets of Paris exactly on\u00a0July 14th, 1789<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>in order to subvert the French Revolution which initially began as a perfectly peaceful process<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Other “extravagant” features to be found in the Monceau Garden are a Roman colonnade<\/strong> and a bridge modeled after the\u00a0Rialto bridge<\/strong> in Venice<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Later, the park was adorned with statues of the likes of Gounod<\/a><\/strong>, Chopin,\u00a0Maupassant<\/a><\/strong>, and Alfred de Musset…<\/p>\n

But you can bet your French fries<\/a><\/strong> that these relics are not what the nearby watchmen worry the most about!<\/p>\n

Today, the site is an active free Wi-Fi area, to satisfy all the computer addicts who can’t live too long without Internet access.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=grNDFxkeFaI<\/a><\/p>\n

French singer Yves Duteil sings about le parc Monceau<\/em>, where he often went as a kid to do his “\u00e9cole\u00a0buissonni\u00e8re<\/em>” (“playing hooky”, meaning to skip school…)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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