• Zoo and galleries cost extra, since only the garden is free: the Ménagerie, the Grandes Serres and the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution each need a ticket
• Paleontology gallery closed for renovation until 2027, so the Galerie de Paléontologie et d'Anatomie comparée is off the list for now
• Gates can shut in bad weather, and the alpine garden opens mornings only and closes from November to March

Paris's first botanical garden, open to the public for almost 400 years, runs from Gare d'Austerlitz to the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution between long alleys of trimmed plane trees.

Kids can climb the labyrinth hill to Buffon's gazebo, one of the oldest metal structures in the world, and find a cedar planted in 1734. The Ménagerie zoo, the Grandes Serres greenhouses and the natural history galleries sit inside the grounds.