The Universal Garden: Albert Kahn Garden {Look Around}

Here we sit, in true #summerdreams style, brainstorming where we could take ourselves and the kids on the next blazing week-end. Nobody wants to stay inside! The next thing I hear about is a garden around Paris, the Albert Kahn garden. Fine, I promise myself to jot that down and...forget.

The week after, what do I find in my mailbox? The local newsletter that I usually throw away without having a second thought (too much clutter, not enough storage and time and blahblah...). Only this time, I bring it home.

What's on the cover? A vibrant green picture of a beautiful garden that seems to be rooted in Japan. The title says it all and places the magic spot right where it belongs on the map: The Albert Kahn garden, in Boulogne (near Paris, France). 

It is a sign. Let's read on and organize ourselves then - let's go there, find out why it has been so special over the years.

Who was Albert Kahn? He was first and foremost a banker, with a fortune - some of it inherited and some of it built with his own hands, through hard studies and work as a banker. In 1893 he settles in Boulogne, in the Parisian suburbs where he starts designing and putting together his garden.

Aside from his flourishing business, Albert Kahn is a thinker, a visionnaire deeply interested in and affected by geopolitics during his time. He dedicates himself to the promotion of peace throughout the world by creating several foundations and institutions in fields as varied as biological studies, international travels for bursary teachers and documentary archives. His endeavors are now fully documented in the museum. Beyond simple philanthropy, he is a true builder and his garden is further proof of his incredible entrepreneurial mindset.

The garden itself opens its doors for the first time to the public in 1937, when most of Kahn's property had fallen into the State's hands following the 1929 stock exchange crisis. 

What is so special about it? 

The garden is a mosaic of gardens and landscapes. The visit starts with the Japanese garden: peaceful, balanced and sacred, it shows you that the other side of the world is at your doorstep. Water flows on the river bed stones, whispering haikus in our ears. This sanctuary is only one of the sceneries to be found around this universal garden where Kahn has reproduced his ideal of universal peace. 

It is magic to wander around, cross the bridges over the ponds and into the French garden, along the bamboo then the orchard where apples dot the ground and the winter greenhouse hides vigorous secrets waiting to burst out of the glass roof. From manmade glass and brick constructions to blue and golden forests where visitors sit to try and breathe again under the cruel July heat, the voyage continues far and away through this garden - a true, enchanting microcosm and symbol of an ideal never reached. 

Credit: watercolor by TheDaydreamer