Most visitors walk through this small garden to admire Notre-Dame or head to the banks of the Seine, unaware that it is home to one of the capital’s oldest residents. Behind a few flower beds and benches in the shade of the plane trees stands a tree with a unique appearance, supported by two concrete crutches. This black locust tree, sometimes mistakenly called a false acacia, is considered the oldest tree in Paris.
The oldest tree in Paris is planted just a stone’s throw from Notre-Dame
When it was planted in 1601, Henry IV was still king of France, and the square where the park stands today bore no resemblance to the green space we know today. The botanist Jean Robin, the king’s gardener and a leading expert on plants from the New World, received seeds brought back from North America. He decided to grow several specimens in Paris. The one in Square René-Viviani is the sole survivor of that first generation, so much so that the species now bears his name: the black locust.
More than four centuries later, the tree is still alive. Time has left it with a few scars: it was struck by lightning, a shell from World War I tore off part of its crown, and its trunk now leans enough to require two imposing concrete supports. Despite this, it continues to bloom every spring, a testament to its astonishing vitality for a tree of this age.
Created in the late 1920s on the site of the former Hôtel-Dieu buildings, the square offers one of the most beautiful views of Notre-Dame. Remnants from the cathedral’s 19th-century restoration are on display there, while the small Church of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, one of the oldest in Paris, borders the garden. A few meters further on, Shakespeare and Company serves as a reminder that the neighborhood remains one of the capital’s literary hotspots.
What is most surprising as you approach the black locust is its appearance. It bears no resemblance to the majestic giant one might imagine. Its trunk is gnarled, its branches seem fragile, and the supports holding it up give it a rather odd look. Yet it has survived the Fronde, the French Revolution , Haussmann’s urban renewal, two world wars , and even the fire at Notre-Dame, which broke out just a few dozen meters away.
In Paris, monuments naturally attract everyone’s attention. Yet one of the city’s most fascinating treasures is neither a cathedral nor a palace. It is a tree planted over 400 years ago, which continues to grow quietly on the banks of the Seine while the capital changes around it.
📍Location: Square René Viviani – Rue Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, 75005
