Grand Bassin

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Grand Bassin and Palais du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Palace)
Jardin du Luxembourg
Quartier de l'Odéon, 6th arrondissement
Paris, July 2002

“In 1611, Marie de' Medici, the widow of Henry IV and the regent for the King Louis XIII, decided to build a palace in imitation of the Pitti Palace in her native Florence. She purchased the Hôtel du Luxembourg (today the Petit Luxembourg) and began construction of the new palace. She commissioned Salomon de Brosse to build the palace and a fountain, which still exists. In 1612 she had 2,000 elm trees planted; she directed a series of gardeners, most notably Tommaso Francini, to build a park in the style she had known as a child in Florence. Francini planned two terraces with balustrades and parterres laid out along the axis of the château, aligned around a circular basin. He also built the Medici Fountain to the east of the palace as a nymphaeum, an artificial grotto and fountain, without its present pond and statuary. The original garden was just eight hectares in size.” (Jardin du Luxembourg, Wikipedia)