Discover another Marais, a surprising one, not the foody one, not the middle-aged one, or the one of private mansions. No discovert the one of the green spaces. A secret Marais, full of gardens.

Archives Nationales garden

You must give honor when honor is due. Archives Nationales public garden is the Marais’s nicest and biggest green space. It is also called the garden of the Hotel de Soubise, as its entry is via this 18th-century city mansion.
From Hotel de Soubise, it gathered the gardens of four other city mansions: the hotels of Rohan, d’Assy, Breteuil, and Fontenoy & Jaucourt.

Previously, the garden was only accessible to the employees of the National Archives (Part of the French Ministry of Culture), but it became a public garden in 2011.
Since 2017, the garden has been partially or totally closed to complete some restoration and reconfiguration works in Hotel de Rohan. Another entry is planned to be opened from 87 rue du Temple, making it possible to stroll the entire garden from rue du Temple to Hotel de Soubise.

Jardin des Rosiers – Joseph-Migneret

This public garden was created from 2007 to 2014, gathering a few previously private gardens. Jardin des Rosiers means rose bushes Garden. The Garden is also named after Joseph-Migneret, the director of the nearby school of the Hospitalières-Saint-Gervais who, during WWII, was a French resistant and saved numerous Jewish children from the Genocide.

This garden is situated behind three historic mansions (hôtels particuliers) of the Marais : the hotel d’Albret, the Hotel Barbes and the hotel de Coulanges.
The tree mansions correspond to three parts of the garden.

The garden’s main entrance is from rue des Rosiers, the main street of Pletzl, the traditional Jewish district of Paris. It opens to the first part of the garden behind Hotel D’Albret.

The garden visitor is welcomed by the impressive remains of a tower of the former city wall of Paris, commissioned by the king of France, Philippe Auguste, at the beginning of the 13th century. After the tower, this first section of the des Rosiers garden is a carefully maintained community garden.

The Second part of the garden, behind hôtel Barbes, is the smallest. A big portion of it is occupied by an impressive fig tree.

The Last and biggest part of the garden behind the hotel Coulanges is the biggest one. From there, there is an access to rue des Francs Bourgeois, which is, unfortunately, often closed when we write these lines.
Here, a children’s play area is on a lawn surrounded by white dogwood, Mexican Orange Blossoms, Wild Lilac, etc. From there, an unexpected 35-meter-high chimney can also be seen preserved as a witness to the Marais’s 19th-century industrial past.

Jardin des Arts – Albert Schweitzer

This newly opened (2020) garden combines the Square Albert Schweitzer, the Cité des Arts garden, and the French garden of the Paris Administrative Court.

This is the biggest garden that has opened in the center of Paris for decades. The garden is in front of the magnificent hôtel d’Aumont, an 18th-century mansion now the Paris Administrative Court. If you like ping-pong, the garden is equipped with public tennis tables.

The Jardin des Arts is conveniently situated just beside the Pont-Marie Metro Station.

The Garden of the Hotel de Sens nowadays Forney Library

Just beside Jardin des Arts, crossing the street is the garden of Hotel de Sens.

Along with the Hotel de Cluny, the Hotel de Sens is one of Paris’s only two major medieval civil architecture mansions. It was formerly the palace of the Archbishops of Sens when Paris was still under their jurisdiction until 1622. Nowadays, it is the Forney Library, which specializes in decorative arts, fine arts, graphic arts, fashion, advertising, and design.

The garden of the Hotel de Sens is a public garden just beside the Forney Library. It is a tiny formal French garden with flowerbeds and box trees on the earth of Paris. Its topiaries (yew trees cut into cones) punctuate each corner of the garden.

So, if you want to spend a quiet moment in a formal French garden, sitting in the morning shade of an authentic French gothic palace in the Marais, or enjoy the afternoon sun, the garden of the Hotel de Sens is the place to go.

The Garden of the Hotel Salé – Leonor Fini

The Hôtel Salé has been home to the Picasso Museum since 1985. This is the world’s biggest collection of artists.

Beside the western facade of the hotel sale is the garden, a beautiful playground. Lots of kids come into this public garden after school lets out. It has modern climbing apparatus and table tennis.

The Saint-Gilles-Grand-Veneur public garden

This garden is a really secret one, one of the most hidden in Paris. You can’t even perceive it from the street. You enter the garden via a porch on rue de Hesse.

The garden Saint-Gilles-Grand-Veneur is the smallest of the 3rd arrondissement (less than 1000 m2). It is shielded from noise and nicely decorated with climbing roses.
The garden is beside the Hotel du Grand Veneur, a prestigious private mansion built in the 17th century.

Anne Frank Garden: A Hidden Memorial

Among the Le Marais secret gardens, the Anne Frank Garden offers a poignant and peaceful retreat. Created in 2007, this secluded space honors the young diarist’s memory with a descendant of the chestnut tree she wrote about. The garden features winding paths, quiet seating areas, and stone markers etched with quotes from Anne’s diary. Its thoughtful design incorporates elements from her life, creating a space for reflection and remembrance. Located in the heart of Le Marais, this hidden gem provides a moment of tranquility amidst the bustling neighborhood. For a more in-depth exploration of this meaningful space, visit our dedicated page on the Anne Frank Garden.

The Hotel de Sully Garden

At 62 rue Saint Antoine, the hôtel de Sully is a Jewel of the Marais, probably its most famous 17th-century mansion.
It is a reference for the private mansions architectural design “entre cour et Jardin” (between courtyard and garden) that appeared in Paris in the 16th century.
Nowadays, the hôtel serves as a passage from rue Saint-Antoine (courtyard side) and place des Vosges (garden side) and houses the headquarters of the Centre des Monuments Nationaux ( the “National Monuments Center”).

Staying in this garden is to stay in a genuine reference garden of 17th-century French architecture. As it should be, the Hotel de Sully garden is a French formal one, with its lawn bordered by manicured lines of box trees and its own orangery oriented to the south to warm the exotic trees during the winters.

Don’t miss the hôtel de Sully Garden; it offers a journey in the 17th century French “Grand Siècle”.

Broaden-horizons.fr offers a lot of the Marais walking tours. We have our classical Marais tours of 2 or 3 hours, as our Notre-Dame to le Marais Tour which includes the Saint Louis Island. We also walk the Marais in our Paris “full day tour version 2” with a Louvre evening tour included. Normally, the Sully Garden and the Hotel de Sens Garden are shown in all our Marais tours, but if you want to see more of the Marais gardens, you should take our 4-hour classical Marais tour.