~Garden of the Worlds~

First a little background on Albert Kahn.

The Garden of the Worlds is the legacy of Albert Kahn; a French banker and philanthropist.  He is most known for his compilation of photographs titled "The Archives of the Planet".

In 1909, Kahn travelled with his chauffeur and photographer to Japan on business and returned with many photographs of his journey.  This visit, and the Lumiere brother's development of color photography, prompted him to begin a project collecting a photographic record of the entire Earth.  Between 1909 and 1931, 72,000 color photographs and 183,000 meters of film were collected.  These photographs form a unique historical record of 50 countries known as "The Archives of the Planet".

The economic crash of 1929 bankrupted Kahn and put an end to the project.  Kahn died at Boulogne-Billancourt outside of Paris in November of 1940 during the Nazi occupation of France.

Since 1986, the photographs have been housed in a museum at 14 Rue du Port at the site of his garden.  Kahn bought the property in 1893 and established this unique garden.  It covers 4 hectares and includes a variety of garden styles including an English garden, Japanese garden, rose garden, winter garden and a conifer copse.  By placing the distinct garden traditions together, Kahn meant for the garden to be a symbol of a world in harmony and peace.  The garden, Garden of the Worlds, is now a French national museum.

When you enter, it is the Japanese garden that you see first. It is breathtaking; especially in Spring with all the vividly colored rhododendrons and azalaes.

This rock bed was unbelievable.  Every one of those flat stones was positioned standing on edge...a river of rocks.

There were many ishidoro in the garden.  I love these stone lanterns and they were all in perfect view.

Kahn was obviously fond of the Japanese culture.  There are several village buildings along the pathways.

A rather unusual bridge.  I didn't go back there so I don't know if it could be crossed.

This is part of the conifer woods...very rocky and quite a contrast to the flowering gardens.

A walk through the rhododendrons.  There were so many unusual plants and shrubs.  I only wish they had
been labelled.

This is a good example of how the rocks were laid and patterned.  Around every turn there was something different to see.

A slightly sloped waterfall.  There were several of these as well, each laid out different than the last.

Beautiful pond well stocked with koi~every color and pattern imaginable.  And they were big.

My favorite photo.

Another ishidoro.

There were not a lot of peonies blooming.  The spring had been quite cold and wet. The ones that there were in bloom were huge! Much bigger than your hand.

Can you tell I liked the stone lanterns?

This was a gate that lead into one of the village buildings.  It's made of bamboo.

When we were there, there were several small groups of school children.  These kids were 5 or 6 years old. Each one of them was very focused on their drawings.  There were also artists visiting with their instructor sketching in various parts of the garden.

A small sitting area under a huge willow tree.

The day we were there none of the bridges were accessible, so this is how we crossed the stream.

No wooden stairs in this garden.

So serene.  Japanese irises.

The English Garden.

The Winter garden.

I took this photo through the glass in the door.  Just exquisite inside.  It was closed however.

This is the rose garden.  The bushes were espaliered and shaped. Very unusual.  The bushes had buds but needed a few more weeks of warm weather before they would be blooming.

More of the rose garden; a lovely walkway with covered trellises. I think you can tell that it was quite easy to spend a few hours here even though it is not really that large.

The Albert Kahn garden and museum is easy to get to (Metro #10 and Bus #52,72) and the entrance fee is minimal (I thought it was a mistake).  Since it is a national museum it is closed on Mondays.

A book of photographs, The Dawn of the Color Photograph and DVD, The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn:The Archives of the Planet show this vast photographic collection and beautiful garden.

I put both of these on my 'wish list'.