The exhibition
Roll up your sleeves and get ready to explore the six chapters of this exhibition! A variety of installations reinterpret existing gardens and stimulate your senses. Each section features a series of experiments to enrich your knowledge.
As you explore, you can learn about inter-species relationships, soil biodiversity, the impact of climate on gardens, and the practices and benefits of gardening. Get to know the traditionally unloved animal and plant species in our gardens. Sow a seed of inspiration on “La fresque des Jardiniers”, an evolving, collective and living digital mural.
Gardening offers a breath of fresh air, reconnecting us with nature and bringing together art and science!
Practical information
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€15 | €12 | Our prices
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From age 9
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Trilingual exhibition (French, English, Spanish)
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The Cité is open from Tuesday to Saturday 10.00 am - 6.00 pm and 10.00 am - 7.00 pm on Sunday.
Accessibility
- Accessible to visually impaired visitors
- Accessible to visitors with reduced mobility
- Accessible to deaf and hard of hearing visitors
- Accessible to signing deaf visitors
Plan your visit
This exhibition area can be accessed by lift. Small pushchairs are allowed inside the museum.
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© Natalia Lebedinskaia / Moment / Getty Images The family vegetable garden
Start your journey at the International Gardens in Dresden, Germany. Here, everyone speaks the same language, the language of gardening, and cultivates both family roots and vegetable roots! Begin by breathing in the scents of nourishing plants. Then find out how certain vegetables have migrated and evolved in shape... and even taste. Try out the vegetable matchmaking app: identify the plants whose associated cultivation brings added value.
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© Jacky Parker Photography / Getty Images The flower garden
Continue your walk in a plot inspired by Violet Croll’s flower garden. A field of giant, bright origami petals to contemplate. From sexual reproduction to self-pollination, flowers have more than one trick up their sleeves. Match flower and pollinator pairs as you follow the trail. Try your hand at hybridisation and create a new variety of rose. Finally, do you think you know the symbolism of flowers? Compare different perceptions around the world.
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© Arianne / Adobe Stock The communal garden
Harvest information about communal gardens as you explore the installation inspired by L’Autre-Champ in Villetaneuse. Listen carefully to the objects planted here and there: you will hear sounds, conversations and stories from the urban environment. Then roll up your sleeves: get ready to dig, hoe and spray! A great opportunity to explore the impact of these practices on the soil and wildlife. You can also learn how to produce the ideal compost. Not too much, not too little, just the right balance of nutrients.
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© hobo 018 / Getty Images The healing garden
Explore the medicinal forest of Boris Presseq (the original garden is located in Toulouse), represented by a tactile trail made up of various materials. Try your hand at botany, grouping together plants with common medicinal uses. Discover how “weeds” (couch grass, dandelions) can be beneficial to your health. Understand the therapeutic virtues of gardening: taking care of your garden can also mean taking care of yourself!
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© John Keeble / Moment / Getty Images The spontaneous garden
Join Éric Lenoir in his punk garden and challenge your preconceptions about nature. Take a new perspective as you start by contemplating a garden... on the ceiling! In this space, you are encouraged to take the time to observe, to let nature take its course, and to understand the ecosystem that your garden can represent. To mow or not to mow? That is the question facing a robot lawnmower going through an existential crisis. Watch a film about an educational garden run by schoolchildren in Amiens. A wonderful initiative to reconnect with nature!
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© Olivier - Tuffé / Adobe Stock The adaptive garden
Head for the Sparoza Garden in Greece, a Mediterranean garden where plant species have been selected for their ability to adapt to hot, dry climates. What is their secret? Hairs, wax, thorns, reflection... Have fun combining these strategies to create the ultimate champion in drought resistance! Then, play alone or with others to transform a temperate climate garden into a garden adapted to hot weather. Finally, discover or rediscover gardening tips from around the world to save water.