Esprit Jardin, the free plant festival of Versailles 2024, program

The Esprit Jardin event is held every year in Versailles and welcomes over 20,000 people. The Fête des Plantes offers a unique opportunity for gardening enthusiasts and nature lovers to get together and exchange ideas. For the past 16 years, the event has been raising awareness among young and old alike of the need for sustainable management of green spaces, highlighting the royal city's plant and architectural heritage.

According to François de Mazières, Mayor of Versailles and President of Versailles Grand Parc, the city has inherited an urban and landscape heritage that is unique in the world, thanks to the gardens and vegetated axes designed by André Le Nôtre. This richness is an asset when it comes to meeting the new challenges of tomorrow's city, notably the harmonious marriage of city and nature, and the preservation of biodiversity.

Esprit Jardin takes place in a number of emblematic Versailles locations, including the Place de la Cathédrale Saint-Louis, the École nationale supérieure de paysage - Potager du Roi, the Cour des senteurs, the Parc Balbi and the Passage des étangs Goberts. Admission is free, and you can take advantage of these two exceptional days to discover or rediscover one of our country's most beautiful heritages. During this Plant Festival, you'll be able to enjoy a rich and varied program.

New for 2024:

• À fleur de rue" show: Join the unique "painter-poets" Antonello and Romeo, two eccentric flower merchants from Venice, as they wander the streets offering lively, welcoming and interactive street theater. Immerse yourself in the world of street arts, including gesture theater, movement, masks and puppets.
  
  
• Growing heads workshop: Join eco-gardeners and biodiversity experts to create your own growing head featuring little athletes.
  
  
• Flower ring: The Beetle Caravan is back in top form! Make your ring from twigs and plant fibers, then decorate it with beautiful, colorful flowers. Perfect for hanging on a door, window, wall or balcony.
  
  
• The miniature garden by Projet Bebop: Discover the art of plant design with Rodrigue during a workshop where you'll have the opportunity to create a splendid miniature garden.
  
  
• Other workshops: try your hand at Zomé tataki and vegetable painting, tawashi and seed bomb making, flower lemonade making, and discovering edible wild plants.

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Always on time

• Les bergeries en ville Medicinal plants, sensory discovery of animals, gardener's Olympics, ephemeral vegetable garden, animal enclosure, sheep-shearing demonstration (Sundays only).
  
  
• Activities organized by the City of Versailles gardeners Creation of an ephemeral garden, potting workshop, head-to-grow workshops with sportsmen and women... The city's gardeners, eco-gardeners and biodiversity specialists await you on the forecourt of the Cathédrale Saint-Louis.
  
  
• Guided tours of the Potager du Roi, historic site of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure du Paysage and "privileged" visits. Built in 1678 and 1683 by Jean-Baptiste La Quintinie at the request of Louis XIV, the Potager du Roi is home to the Ecole nationale supérieure de paysage. Classified as a historic monument and a remarkable garden, its gardeners perpetuate the art of pruning and cultivate a wide variety of fruits and vegetables with an agro-ecological vision.

Don't miss this unique opportunity to celebrate the art of gardening and raise awareness of sustainable management of green spaces. Join us in Versailles on April 27 and 28 for the Fête des Plantes Esprit Jardin! And while you're there, drop by the Marché Notre Dame to discover the free designer market.