Hundreds enjoy Elysée gardens

HUNDREDS of people took the chance to walk in the gardens of the Elysée Palace in Paris as they were opened under a new policy by President Hollande.

The gardens are normally open only once a year, on the Journées Européennes du Patrimoine, but Hollande decided they should open on the last Sunday of every month.

Visitors and tourists queued for up to an hour on the Avenue Gabriel, just off the Champs-Elysées, to enter the 1.5 hectare garden through the Grille du Coq into the Jardin à l'anglaise with its curved lawn. #

First through the gates were a couple from Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) who had waited for nearly three hours to walk on the 7,000sq.m of lawns and admire the roses, begonias, hydrangeas, narcissii, hyacinths and cyclamens.

The garden is where Hollande posed for his official portrait and also where, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy told the BBC, Nicolas Sarkozy took her for romantic walks and explained the Latin names of the flowers.

They will be open from 12.00 to 17.00 from October to March and from 13.00 to 19.00 April to September.
Screengrab from Elysee site - photo Laurent Blevennec