The Jardin des Plantes is a public garden in Paris that serves as a meeting place for observation and covert police business. Its broad walk and secluded alley connect an initial sighting of Mlle. Michonneau and Poiret with the later recruitment of Mlle. Michonneau by M. Gondureau, making the garden a threshold between the boarding house’s everyday life and the investigation of Vautrin.

Setting and First Suspicion

Bianchon notices Mlle. Michonneau and Poiret chatting on a bench in the Jardin des Plantes with a man he recognizes from the Chamber of Deputies’ troubles of the previous year. The man appears to him to be a detective disguised as a respectable retired tradesman. Bianchon does not yet explain his suspicions, but tells his companion that they should keep watch on the pair and promises to say more another time. The scene gives the garden an observational role: a seemingly ordinary public encounter carries the first visible sign of an inquiry unfolding around the residents of the Maison Vauquer.

A Meeting Place for Police Work

Two days later, Poiret and Mlle. Michonneau sit together in a little-frequented alley of the garden with the same suspected man, now identified as M. Gondureau. He presses Mlle. Michonneau to put aside her scruples, explaining that the Minister of Police is personally interested in the matter. In this less public corner, the earlier suspicion becomes a deliberate approach: the garden provides a setting where police authority can solicit cooperation without entering the boarding house itself.

From the Garden to the Boarding House

After speaking with Poiret and Mlle. Michonneau, M. Gondureau says he will bring his men to the Jardin du Roi the following morning and directs that Christophe be sent to the Rue du Buffon to ask for him at the house where she had seen him before. The garden is thus both a rendezvous and a point in a wider operational route, linked to the police’s planned action beyond its paths. The next day, the Maison Vauquer is described as entering an extraordinary sequence of events, giving the garden meetings their importance as preparation for upheaval in the boarding house.