Place des Etats-Unis Park in Paris
The Place des etats-Unis translates to the Place of the United States and is a small park in Paris that is connected to the Square Thomas Jefferson, where you can find several monuments and a typical American style garden layout.
About the Place des Etats-Unis
The Place des Etats-Unis started off being called the Place de Bitche, which was named after a village in the north eastern part of France and dedicated to the people who resisted a Prussian invasion during the Franco-Prussian war.
However, when an American ambassador decided to set up home here and created the American embassy in Paris, the name did not seem appropriate and this was then changed to the Place des Etats-Unis in 1881, along with building an American style garden which was based on the Battery Park in New York, and the Square Thomas Jefferson were created.
And even though there are still fabulous houses located all around this park and square in Paris, which is also home to the Musee Baccarat crystal museum and the Cristal Room Restaurant in Paris, we would like to point out that the American Embassy is now located on Rue Gabriel close to the Place de la Concorde and the most famous of all avenues, the Champs Elysees.
But with its benches, lamp posts that came from the United States, the railings along the edges of the pathways, this small park in Paris is a haven of peace for those on holiday in Paris and is a popular place for Americans to discover.
Plus there is also a childrens playground here with slide etc, so that the little ones can have a bit of fun before dragging them off to some other part of the city!
You will also find plenty of different flowers, bushes and trees such as chestnut and lime along with a tulip tree, and a young sycamore that came from the island that is home to the Statue of Liberty in New York, and this was planted in 1987 in the presence of the Ambassador of the United States.
Yet there are also different statues and monuments that are located here as well..
* One particular monument in Paris to be found in the Square Thomas Jefferson was commissioned by the famous journalist Joseph Pulitzer who gave his name to the Pulitzer prize.
And sculpted by Frederic Bartholdi, this bronze statue is of General George Washington and Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, who were comrades in arms during the American Revolutionary War. It was designed with the two of them in their military uniforms shaking hands, and emblematic of the relationship between France and America, and after being set on a marble plinth, this monument was inaugurated in 1895.
* The next monument was designed by Rene Bertrand-Boutee and commemorates Horace Wells, who was the American Dentist that was a pioneer in the use of anaesthesia and this was inaugurated on the 10th anniversary of the Federation Dentaire Internationale.
Yet at the base of the monument on one of the sides, you can see where the sculptor incised the medallion of the physiologist Paul Bert, who was also an early experimenter of anaesthetics.
* Then you have the memorial to the American volunteers, which was dedicated on the 4th July 1923, which is American Independence Day, and this memorial that is also located at the Place des Etats-Unis is dedicated to the Americans that volunteered to fight for France during World War I.
This particular memorial monument in Paris was sculpted by Jean Boucher, and taken from photographs of the soldier and poet called Alan Seeger as the inspiration, and this bronze statue stands on a plinth where you can discover his name along with several others who fell while in the French Foreign Legion.
Also, on the sides of the base, you can discover inscriptions that are excerpts from a poem that Alan Seeger wrote before his death, which was called the Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen for France.
* In addition to these, there is also the bronze bust that was sculpted by Leon Drivier, who at one point worked at the studios of Auguste Rodin and produced the La Joie de Vivre sculpture that can be found at the Jardins du Trocadero.
But getting back to the Place des Etats-Unis, this particular bust was dedicated to a former United States ambassador called Myron T Herrick, and it is through the efforts of this ambassador that there is an American hospital in Neuilly located in the suburbs of Paris.
However, as well as the Square Thomas Jefferson at the Place des Etats-Unis, you can also discover a monument dedicated in his honour right by the River Seine, which overlooks the Hotel de Salm. And the Hotel de Salm was a building that Thomas Jefferson admired, and when you look at the American Nickel, this is very similar in style to the Monticello building in America where he lived!
So, for another unusual tourist attraction in Paris that is often overlooked, why not spend a few minutes taking in the history and tranquillity of the Place des Etats-Unis, or Place of the United States, along with the Square Thomas Jefferson, before heading for another monument or landmark in this incredible city.
Access to Place des Etats-Unis
Located in the 16th Arrondissement of Paris and linked with the Square Thomas Jefferson, the nearest Metro station is called the Lena stop on line 9 and it is situated approximately 500 metres from the Arc de Triomphe at the square, now known as the Place Charles de Gaulle.
And as with most parks and gardens in Paris, the Place des Etats-Unis is free to enter and wander around, or just relax on one of the park benches and is generally accessible to the disabled, although people with mobility problems would find it difficult to get up close to the main monument of Washington and Lafayette.
