Kiosk jardin Botanique

The botanical garden, designed in 1880 by René Richer, the city's landscape architect, is inspired by Art Nouveau. A statue of Paul and Virginie, the work of the sculptor Visseau, adorned the garden's pond until 1905 before it was destroyed by a cyclone. Tree-shaped masonry by the cement manufacturer Eugène Bourdet adorns the small kiosk, the bridge railing and the transformer.

The jardin botanique is located at the place d'Alsace Lorraine. In 1875, the Bourbon bastion was removed, allowing the construction of the new center of the city, the Place Alsace-Lorraine. In the center of the square is the monument to the dead of 1870, the work of the Ardennes sculptor Aristide Croisy.

The war of 1870 between France and Prussia was the trigger that upset the balance of the world in 75 years.
In August 1870, an army hastily formed in Châlons (in Champagne) took to the Ardennes to prevent the advance of the enemy troops. After a month and a half, the defeated Napoleon III declared himself a prisoner of the subprefecture of Sedan before signing the Capitulation at Donchery. This was called the Sedan debacle.

Willem Vandenameele