Andre le Lenotre

Happy Birthday Andre le Lenotre!! Today we look at a landscape architect for the first time, French born in 1613. Specializing in formal gardens, Lenotre was the prime gardener for King Louis the XIV, responsible for the gardens at the Palace of Versailles. He also designed the formal gardens (covering 63 acres) of the Palace Tuileries, expanding westward, creating the famed avenue Champs-Elysees still in existence today. The Champs-Elysees is the basis of the Axe historique, which is a series of monuments, buildings and roadways radiating from the center of Paris. The gardens exist still today, though the palace burned in 1871. Below, the Gardens before the palace burned and the same view today. You are looking toward the Louvre. Behind you is the Arc de Triomphe.