Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
On the pavement beside the railings to the park is a column erected in 2000 as
part of the la Méridienne Verte. The Paris Meridian is mapped on the plaque
as going from Dunkerque to Barcelona.
In the Jardin de Marco Polo the meridian lies along the axis of the western avenue
of trees, passing to the west of the recently renovated and spectacular Fountain of
the Observatory (this is its common name; it is more correctly the
Fountain of the
Four Quarters of the World
). It was made in 1873 by the architect Gabriel Davioud
(1823-1881), one of Haussmann's callaborators. Under Napoleon III, Baron Georges-
Eugène Haussmann (1809-1891) was Prefect of Paris and supervised the recon-
struction of its center, setting out the main railway stations and the underpinning
infrastructure suitable for a mid-nineteenth century city. He created the city of wide
boulevards and open spaces that Paris is today. The sculpture at the center of
the Fountain of the Observatory is by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875); turtles
and sea horses surround the base of the plinth, which is girdled by shore creatures.
On top of the plinth stand women representing the four continents of Europe, Asia,
Africa and the Americas. America is regarded as one continent and Oceania and
Antarctica are omitted with the licence of artistic symmetry. The women carry the
celestial sphere on their shoulders which then contains a zodiacal band.
Under the trees, closely trimmed along the meridian line, are three tables for
table tennis. They are made of concrete and a green agglomerate stone with a metal
net for play. They have been placed here by someone with a sense of location; each
has the central axis of its “court” aligned along the meridian.
Arago Medallion Number 49, on the corner of the pavement of Rue Michelet
between the Jardin de Marco Polo and the Jardin de Robert Cavelier de la Salle, has
been pried off its base. So too has Number 50, outside the western entrance to the
Jardin de Robert Cavelier de la Salle, opposite to the Faculté de Pharmacie.
Luxembourg
There are 11 medallions in the Jardin de Luxembourg. Number 52 lies in the Rue
Auguste Comte outside the Porte de l'Observatoire Ouest. Others are mounted on
the pathway by the statue of the alert lion and on the cross path by the children's
playground. There are two together at the top of the west steps leading down to the
lawn and pond. Two more Green Meridian plaques are mounted on stone balus-
trades at the corners overlooking the pond with the Medici Fountain and the Senate
house in the Palais de Luxembourg. The meridian passes down the west side of the
Senate House along a path guarded by a gendarme to stop public access. It is there-
fore necessary to detour to the west, passing the Museum of the Jardin du
Luxembourg. Left (westwards) along Rue de Vaugirard is the Rue d'Assas and
stonework on the block of flats on the corner commemorates the first pendulum
experiment of Léon Foucault carried out in the cellar of his house on this site. To
the right (eastwards) the meridian line crosses the Rue Vaugirard, near where it
passes alongside the Senate House.
