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Starting point and access: Place Colette.
- Metro - Line 1 or 7 (Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre station). Take Exit 5 to Place Colette.
- Bus - Routes 21, 27, 39, 67, 68, 69, 72, 95.
The main animal depictions and key features to look out for are indicated in italics within the description.
(S) As you exit the metro station, turn left to cross Rue Saint-Honoré at the pedestrian crossing. Note a shop on the left with a civet as its sign. Turn right twice to cross Rue de Rohan and then Rue Saint-Honoré again. Pass the Fountain of the Sea Nymph on your left ; beneath the statue’s base, water flows from wolf’s mouths. Cross Place André Malraux, turn right and cross Avenue de l’Opéra (view of the Palais Garnier on the left). Turn right again and pass the Fountain of the River Nymph on your left (same observation as for the previous fountain). Cross Rue de Richelieu to reach Place Colette.
(S) Cross the square, keeping the Comédie Française on your left. Continue along Rue Saint-Honoré and walk past the Conseil d’État. Take the first left, Rue de Valois. On the left, note a lion’s head above the entrance porch to the Cour des Colonnes de Buren.
Then turn right, cross Place de Valois and pass under a nearby passageway (Passage Vérité). On the other side, continue along Rue Montesqieu (winged lions at no. 4). At the end, cross Rue des Petits Champs and follow it to the right. Take the first left, Rue du Pélican (whose name is a corruption of an old name with sexual connotations).
(1) You will come out onto Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau; follow it to the right. At the next junction, turn left into Rue Saint-Honoré. At the traffic lights, turn right into Rue du Louvre. Take the first left, Rue Bailleul. At the end (opposite the 18th-century Hôtel du Trudon), follow Rue de l’Arbre Sec to the right. Cross Rue de Rivoli and continue straight ahead.
Pass by the apse of the Church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois and note the bas-reliefs high up featuring sections of fish interspersed with foliage (difficult to make out due to the darkness of the stone). Turn right into Rue des Prêtres Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois and walk alongside the church on your right (animal gargoyles high up). At the corner, turn right, passing in front of the church entrance (dragons and fantastical birds on the portal’s surround). You’ll arrive at the foot of the belfry of the 1st arrondissement town hall, designed by Théodore Ballu in 1840.
(2) Then turn left, cross a small square and then Rue du Louvre at the pedestrian crossing. Pass a chain and then a small gate to enter the Cour Carrée du Louvre (a chariot drawn by four horses above the gateway). Exit on the other side, but not before exploring the statues all around the building (on the opposite wing, before the exit, look above certain second-floor windows for framed female faces, flanked either by lions or dogs).
Go down a few steps and walk around the Louvre Pyramid on the left. On the left, a row of street lamps with a fish carved at their base. At the Sully Pavilion, reclining lions framing the letter ‘N’. At each corner, large eagles. Beneath each statue of a famous man, a lion’s head. Walk past the equestrian statue of Louis XIV. Then go round a roundabout on the left, using the pedestrian crossings, and you’ll arrive at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, topped by a quadriga (under renovation in autumn 2023 and completely covered in scaffolding).
(3) Walk on for another twenty metres or so and turn left to walk along a lawn adorned with statues on your right. Reach the Porte des Lions, flanked by two sculptures of reclining lions, turn right and walk along the building on your left (high up, heads surrounded by lions or dogs). Walk past the Porte Jaujard (reclining lions), continue straight ahead and note the lion-head-shaped balcony corbels. Turn left, pass through a gate and note more lion-head balcony corbels as well as, higher up, horned-head mascarons.
At the end of the building (sphinx sculpture, female sphinx), turn right to cross Avenue du Général Lemonier (another sphinx). Turn right again and ignore the entrance to the waterside terrace on the left. Pass through a gate and follow a gravel path. At a fork, take the left-hand path, which slopes gently downwards, to reach the entrance gate to the Tuileries Garden.
(4) Walk along the central path and immediately note two statues of women with a dog at their feet: Diana on the left and a nymph on the right. At the junction shortly afterwards, turn left towards a small pond. Go round the pond on the left and pass in front of the sculpture of the tigress carrying a peacock to her cubs. Then take the second path on the left.
At the next junction, turn right towards the large pond. Go round it on the left or right and take the path opposite , between the Centaur abducting Deianira on the left and Theseus fighting the Minotaur on the right. Then note a basin on the right with two goat’s heads, one on each side. Take the first path on the right towards a small pond. Go round it on the right and pass in front of the tiger defeating a crocodile. Take the first path on the right and you will come to a junction (on the right, a monument in honour of Jules Ferry).
(5) Follow a tree-lined path to the left, running parallel to a very wide, bare path on the right. At the first junction, go straight on. At the second junction, at the foot of a statue of Diana with a doe, turn left. Then turn right between two basins. Just after a restaurant, first turn left then right to walk alongside a small pond on your left. At the end of this (winged sphinxes at the foot of a statue), first turn right then left.
At the junction that appears immediately, turn right and pass by a sculpture depicting a severed human head surmounted by a stag. Cross the tree-lined path you took earlier, emerge onto the very wide avenue and turn left towards an exit staircase. The staircase is flanked by two sculptural groups, one depicting a lion and a lioness fighting over a wild boar, the other a rhinoceros attacked by a tiger; both are by Cain (the animal sculptures in the Tuileries, dating from the late 19th century, are decidedly quite violent...).
(6) With your back to the staircase, turn right into the very wide avenue and head towards the monument in honour of Waldeck Rousseau. Then turn left and go round a large pond on the left (various statues on the left, including Hannibal with two eagles) to climb the staircase opposite. At the top, go straight on (the Musée de l’Orangerie is on the right) until you reach the sculpture of the lion and the snake. Turn right and walk along the Orangerie on your right. At the corner, turn right again and walk past Rodin’s The Kiss (removed in January 2024 for restoration). Go straight ahead, then turn right onto a path that curves downwards.
At the bottom, pass the sculpture group of the Nile (sphinx and young crocodiles) on your right and that of the Loire and Loiret on your left. Ignore the path on the left leading to the garden exit and walk between the sculpture group of the Seine and Marne on the left and that of the Tiber, featuring the Roman she-wolf suckling Remus and Romulus, on the right. Walk up a curved path. At the top, turn right (on the left, a set of bronze hands by Louise Bourgeois, 1996). At the entrance to the Musée du Jeu de Paume, look for a staircase on the left, at the foot of a lion sculpture, and go down. At the bottom, turn left to leave the garden.
(7) First turn right then left to cross Rue de Rivoli at the pedestrian crossing. Next, turn left then right to take Rue Saint-Florentin. At No. 4, note a beautiful gate with two small lion heads at the top and three more on a balcony above. At No. 11, note a gate whose handles are lion heads holding snakes in their mouths.
At the traffic lights, rejoin Rue Saint-Honoré and follow it to the left (lion heads at No. 279). Then cross Rue Royale (Église de la Madeleine on the right) and continue along Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. At the next junction (equestrian statue at the very top of the building opposite on the right), turn left into Rue Boissy d’Anglas. After No. 9, note the eagles on the gate on the right-hand side and an eagle in bas-relief just before the corner (US Embassy). At the end, cross Avenue Gabriel and take a shaded path. Cross Avenue des Champs Élysées at the traffic lights (Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile visible in the distance on the right).
(8) On the other side, at the foot of one of the statues from the Marly Horses group, turn left, cross a road at the pedestrian crossing and head towards Place de la Concorde. Turn right, leaving the obelisk on your left. Then cross two roads to reach the entrance to Pont de la Concorde. Turn right (do not cross the bridge). Continue straight on until you reach the foot of the equestrian statue of Albert I, King of the Belgians.
(9) Then turn left and head down to the banks of the Seine. Follow the river on your left until you reach the foot of the Pont Alexandre III (on the left, a metal bollard with a lizard; on the right, a gate decorated with scallop shells; on the first pier of the bridge, a fish’s head with fins resembling butterfly wings). Climb the steps on the right to reach a crossroads (on the left, a statue of a child with a lion; on the right, an equestrian statue of Simón Bolívar; on the other side of the crossroads, a quadriga at the base of the Grand Palais roof).
Cross the bridge, framed above by two gilded sculptures depicting a winged horse (Pegasus) and its rider, and cross the Seine. Just before the end of the bridge, note on the left a child holding a trident riding a large fish. On the other side, cross the Quai d’Orsay.
(10) Follow the quay to the left. Pass the monument to Aristide Briand (at the top, a bas-relief depicting agricultural scenes: ploughing with oxen, draught horses, a shepherd and sheep). Continue along the quay and walk past the Palais Bourbon, seat of the National Assembly. At the top of the pediment, two roosters; a little further on, a statue of the goddess Minerva with a snake at her feet.
At the corner, turn right into Rue Aristide Briand. Cross Rue de l’Université then Place du Palais Bourbon. In the centre, an allegory of the Law with, on one side of the plinth, a snake coiled around a caduceus; atNo. 7bis, a door with two lion-shaped handles with fish tails.
Take Rue de Bourgogne, which continues straight on. At the traffic lights, go straight ahead. Then turn left into Rue Las Cases, passing in front of the Chapel of the Infant Jesus. At No. 30, four door handles featuring a bearded head and two fish. This brings you to Parvis Maurice Druon at the foot of the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde.
(11) Turn left into Square Samuel Rousseau, where there are two sculptural groups: the monument to César Franck by Alfred Lenoir, 1891, and L’Education maternelle by Eugène Delaplanche, 1875. Walk around the central lawn on the left or right and exit on the other side. Then follow Rue Saint-Dominique to the right (on the wall on the right-hand side, three sculptures of caged birds). Next, turn left into Rue Jacques Bainville (a long, narrow street). At the traffic lights, cross Boulevard Saint-Germain and follow it to the right.
(12) Take the first left, Rue de Bellechasse. Note at No. 18 the headquarters of the French Academy of Agriculture; to the right of the door, the level of the Seine flood of 1910. Cross Rue de l’Université and continue straight ahead (lion heads atNo. 5bis). Cross Rue de Lille (opposite, high up, a bas-relief group featuring, on the right, a bull or ox wearing a "sash"). You will then arrive at the forecourt of the Musée d'Orsay.
(13) Climb the steps on the right and look at the statues representing the different continents: female figures with an animal at their feet. Turn left and walk past the sculpture depicting a young elephant trapped and harassed by a monkey (a baboon?). Turn right towards the sculpture of a rhinoceros and that of the horse with the harrow. Note the depictions of aquatic animals on the rear façade of the building. With your back to the building, look for the staircase on the right leading to the Musée d’Orsay station (E).
To get back home:
- RER - Line C, towards Versailles/Pontoise or Paris-Austerlitz/Massy-Palaiseau/Dourdan/Étampes.
- Metro - Line 12. Turn back and follow Rue de Bellechasse to Solférino station, the entrance to which is on Rue Jacques Bainville, after crossing Boulevard Saint-Germain (12).
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