The Anne Frank Garden

Le Jardin Anne-Frank is another one of the many French gardens that appear in a densely populated neighborhood. You come upon it unexpectedly, but once you enter, it offers you a serene respite from the activity going on all around. Quite near Métro Rambuteau, it is a short walk down Passage Berthaud.

Passage Berthaud

From the passageway, Musée de la Poupée, the Doll Museum, is to the left, and the Anne Frank Garden is to the right. 

Looking back at the entrance from within the garden.

The portal leads to the garden proper.

Just inside the garden entry is a wi-fi hot spot--one of many scattered around Paris.

The second portal leads to the children’s garden.

Looking toward the entrance to the park, you can just see the blue duct work of the Pompidou Center above the buildings and tree tops.

There is a circular bed of vegetation in the middle of the garden.

Flowering trellis on the wall before the playground

The playground, at the far end of the garden

The most distinguishing characteristic of the garden is the trellis enclosure that follows the horseshoe-shape of the garden wall. This part of the garden may have been modeled after the Enceladus Grove in the Parc de Versailles, which has a more elaborate semi-circular trellis surrounding a round basin with a fountain. Both gardens were designed by André Le Nôtre, considered one of the greatest French landscape architects of all time. 

The trellis enclosure

The center portal of the trellis enclosure

The garden is hemmed in by apartment buildings

There is a screen of trees, some of them flowering, and a grassy area  directly opposite the trellis enclosure.  

In June of 2007, Bertrand Delanoë, the Mayor of Paris, inaugurated the Anne Frank Garden, dedicated to the young Jewish girl who wrote in her famous diary about her experiences during the Nazi occupation. This garden belonged to the Hotel de Saint-Agnan, which is now, aptly enough,  home to the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaisme (The Museum of Jewish Art and History), the building behind the black iron fence.

When I visited the garden in June, I thought everything would be in full bloom. There weren’t any great flowering displays at that time, but if you are in the neighborhood, this garden is worth visiting to see the elaborate trellis work.  The Pompidou Center and the Stravinsky Fountain are just across the street from the Metro Rambuteau, and the Stravinsky Fountain is a must-see, so you may well find yourself in this neighborhood and can easily drop in to see the Anne Frank Garden, also.