Less well-known than certain sights in the centre, this amazing place is situated just on the edge of Paris and should be an obligatory stop for anyone visiting the city. Seriously! Have a look at our photos and film!

photos : JasonW

It’s difficult to put into words how much we love the Albert Kahn gardens, situated at the edge of Paris in Boulogne-Billancourt (the metro stop is 100 metres from it). But who was Albert Kahn?

Well, you can learn all about him on this Wikipedia page, but to resume he was a banker who sent people around the globe at the beginning of the 20th Century so they could take as many photos and films as possible in order to document a disappearing  world. The Albert Kahn museum now has one of the biggest image libraries in colour (quite rare) in the world and the BBC made a whole series based around the images (check out their site here: www.albertkahn.co.uk).

Whilst the collection was being compiled, Kahn also started buying up all the land around his house and garden in order to make one huge garden with different styles in the various areas. It’s a magical place, especially in the spring when everything starts to flower. Have a look at our little film…

We were invited for the grand opening of the new exhibition “Secrets of the Tribes”, but managed to negotiate an hour beforehand in the gardens (the management were very good to us). And we had the place all to ourselves! It was really great being able to explore and take as many photos as we liked (like, nearly 200). We couldn’t show them all to you obviously (the Japanese garden, the wood, the rose garden, the hothouse…) but there’s a selection in the Flickr gallery here.

Even if the gardens are extraordinary, it would be a shame to miss out on the wonderful museum, so make sure you have some energy left for it! Currently the Infinite Indias exhibition (extended until 30th August 2009) shows many fascinating colour photographs of India around the early 1900s (we’ve mentioned it before here).

Also, in the gardens from 28th April – 31st May 2009 you can see the exhibition Secrets of the Tribes : homage to a little-know India by Asha Thadani, a series of photographs taken around the country over a number of years documenting the diversity of faces, clothes and traditions. Visits of the exhibition are organised in French, English and German every Tuesday at 3pm, Friday at 11am (except 1st & 8th May) and Thursdays 30th April and 7th May at 11am (no reservation needed).

For more information about the exhibition (in French), click here.

For more information about the wonderful Infinement Indes exhibition (in French), click here.

The Albert Kahn gardens and museum (map here) are open every day except Mondays from 11am – 7pm (closes an hour earlier between Octobers and April). Entrance is really cheap: 1.50€ ! Free for under-12s. It super-easy to get to with line 10 of the métro.

As you may have gathered, we urge you to go and hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we do each time!