Opening times

When is the Tuileries Garden open?

From November to March, the garden is open from 7:30 to 19:30. In April, May, September and October, it is open from 7:00 to 21:00. From June to August, it is open from 7:00 to 23:00.

Entry is free all year. Visitors are asked to leave 30 minutes before closing time.

The garden keeps its own hours: it opens before the museum does and, outside the two late evenings, closes after it.

What to do: Count the last half hour out: staff ask visitors to leave 30 minutes before the closing time.

The garden

What is in the Tuileries Garden?

André Le Nôtre's three-part layout survives: the Grand Carré, Grand Couvert and Octogone. The Grand Carré has ponds and flower beds; the Grand Couvert is wooded. The Grande Allée crosses the Grand Couvert and lines up with the Champs-Élysées. The Octogone surrounds the octagonal Grand Bassin, with ramps leading to two terraces. One runs along the Seine; the Terrasse des Feuillants follows the rue de Rivoli.

Sculptures from the 17th century to today stand in the garden, among them works by Coysevox, Rodin, Dubuffet, Penone and Louise Bourgeois. The museum counts over 3,000 trees and more than thirty species of birds.

Boat hire on the octagonal basin costs €6 per rental; the French garden page specifies 30 minutes. The free play area and carrousel, at €3 per ride, are near the Castiglione entrance. Café des Marronniers is closed for renovation, with a new offering announced for summer 2027.

The history

Who designed the Tuileries Garden?

André Le Nôtre designed the garden's three-part layout for Louis XIV. The Louvre's palace page dates Catherine de' Medici's earlier palace and garden outside Paris's walls to 1564. Its gardens page instead describes the design as over 500 years old. The name comes from the tile works, or tuileries, that had stood there since the Middle Ages.

The Grand Carré, Grand Couvert and Octogone preserve Le Nôtre's layout. The palace page dates his redesign to 1664; the Grande Allée campaign page dates the vista to 1665. The Tuileries Palace burned down during the Paris Commune of 1871 and was never rebuilt.

Landscape architects Pascal Cribier and Louis Benech won a competition to renovate the garden, launched in 1990. The Louvre has managed it since 2005.

The rules

What are the rules in the Tuileries Garden?

You may not cycle, walk or sit on the lawns, pick plants, or touch or climb the sculptures. Smoking is on the museum's list of things not allowed in the garden.

Pets may not be walked in the garden; they are allowed only on café terraces. Birds may not be fed, and the garden's chairs may not be taken away.

Two free public toilets stand near the Place de la Concorde entrance and near the rue de Rivoli entrance opposite the rue du 29 Juillet. Four more are added in summer, and all of them are accessible to visitors with reduced mobility.