Lift the Mask and Smell the Rodin Roses
Alain Baraton recommends the garden at Musée Rodin for the perfume of roses. Colleen’s Paris recommends you hurry before all the petals fall off. It is the end of July. The alternative is to save the date for next year. You will be swept away by the variety of scents. Early Saturday morning, Mr. Baraton convinced me to make the museum’s garden my focus for the morning. He responded to a listener’s question on the radio: If one is in Paris, what garden would he recommend for a garden visit? He saw rabbits in the garden; I saw the Auguste Rodin’s Le Penseur (The Thinker) surrounded by roses in an assorted rainbow blend of pinks, whites, purples, oranges, etc. Visiting the garden first around 11 am, then a swing through the museum was good timing to take our lunch at the garden café restaurant café-restaurant « L’Augustine ». What I thought would be a quick visit, turned into a few hours of relaxation.
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I had to use some detective sleuthing to find the names of certain roses. A tag on one listed André Eve as a source of rose identity. They have roses pre-and post-1867 and 280 varieties available year round.
The recently opened L’Augustine’s chef, Amandine Chaignot, designs the seasonal dishes and the Maison Lenôtre provides the sweet desserts.
The radio station France Inter produces the gardening program, La main verte (The green hand). With the translation, it appears the French use the whole hand for their jardinage (gardening) and Anglos use only a green thumb. For the roses, you only need your nose to enjoy the perfume.
