Les jardins de Paris au siècle des Lumières, espaces de sociabilités par Jan SYNOWIECKI – Château de Bénouville

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Les jardins de Paris au siècle des Lumières, espaces de sociabilités par Jan SYNOWIECKI – Château de Bénouville

Parisian gardens during the Age of Enlightenment, areas for sociability

Of the Tuileries Garden, the Luxembourg Garden and the Palais Royal, we are perfectly familiar with the landscaping history; their creators and their gardeners are renowned figures. Yet, we must bear in mind the extent to which these gardens, created under the Ancien Régime, became indispensable places for social development during the Age of Enlightenment. Encyclopaedists frequently met at the Tuileries Garden to exchange their latest news, whilst new urban settlers flocked to the new places of amusement provided by the Vauxhall pleasure gardens and the folly gardens, in aristocratic dwellings near Paris. In turn providing settings for shows, concerts, strolls and conversation, gardens contributed considerably towards a new definition of Parisian geography and sociability. We will therefore address the role of gardens in the new 18th century urban culture and the manner in which, via the practices they stimulated, gardens contributed towards transforming representations of nature and the city.

Jan Synowiecki

Jan Synowiecki

Jan Synowiecki, a qualified professor in history, is a PhD student at the EHESS – Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (School of Social Sciences), where he is preparing a thesis on the role of Parisian gardens in urban culture and sociability during the Age of Enlightenment, at the crossroads between social and cultural history.