Also known as the Jardins des Gobelins, Square René Le Gall was built on what used to be called “Île aux Singes”, or Monkey Island. It was so called because the weavers at the Gobelins tapestry factory once organised dances where drink flowed freely in this former riverside kitchen garden dotted with little islands. While the weavers caroused, the boatmen’s pet monkeys roamed freely around the place.
There’s nary a monkey to be seen these days in Square René-le-Gall, one of the biggest squares in Paris, spreading over an area of 32,213 sq.m. and designed in neo-classical style with gazebos, smartly trimmed hedges, trellises, little copses and colourful flowerbeds.
The children will be happy in the play area with its sandpit, table tennis equipment, swings etc. and enjoy the water games installed in the square each summer, while you sit back in the shade of a variety of trees – sycamore, ash, fruit trees – near the obelisk or, if you’re in search of a cooler spot, near the small artificial spring.
The square is named after René-Le-Gall, a town councillor for the 13th arrondissement, who was shot dead by the Germans on 7 March 1942 when he was discovered to be a member of the French Resistance.