Robinier du square René-Viviani

Paris

Opposite Notre-Dame, at the tip of the Île de la Cité, a modest public garden conceals the doyen of all the trees of Paris. Planted in 1601 or 1602 by Jean Robin, botanist and arborist to the kings Henri IV and then Louis XIII, this black locust, or false acacia, grew from seeds brought back from the Appalachians by the English naturalist John Tradescant the Elder. Robin first set it in his garden of medicinal plants, long before the square was laid out around it in 1928. The genus Robinia, so named by Linnaeus in tribute to the man who introduced it, owes its entire presence in Europe to this single tree. After more than four centuries of existence, the tree bears the marks of time: a leaning trunk propped up by a stone kerb since 2010, lightning scars, a tangle of branches held up by supports hidden within a weave of chestnut wood. Long smothered by an invasive ivy that was removed in 2016, it nevertheless still covers itself every spring with clusters of fragrant white flowers. Parisians and passing tourists come to sit on the circular bench around it, not always aware that they are keeping company with a witness planted in the reign of Henri IV, contemporary with the building of the Pont-Neuf close by.

Getting there : Square René-Viviani, opposite Notre-Dame, left bank, Paris 5th arrondissement, métro Saint-Michel or Cité

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound