Jardin Japonais de la Compagnie
You find it by getting a little lost first. The Jardin Japonais de la Compagnie sits inside the larger Compans Caffarelli park, and there are no signs pointing you toward it — just shaded paths that eventually open onto 7,000 square metres of raked gravel, cloud-pruned trees, and a pond where koi move slowly beneath the surface and turtles climb onto rocks to warm themselves.
This is a Japanese garden designed on the model of the Katsura villa in Kyoto, with a dry garden, a tea pavilion, a red bridge, stepping stones, and a representation of Mount Fuji. In one corner of the perimeter pond, a steampunk dragon submarine by sculptor Tom Petrusson breaks the serenity in the best possible way.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who come back tend to time it for cherry blossom season — late March into early April — when the garden hosts Hanami celebrations and the flowering trees do what they do. The entrance through Compans Caffarelli genuinely has no signage, so orient yourself before you arrive, or just follow the sound of frogs.
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How Jardin Japonais de la Compagnie came to be
In 1981, Toulouse mayor Pierre Baudis — who had been struck by a Japanese garden he visited in Dublin — commissioned a garden of the same spirit for the city. The design came from the Toulouse City Parks and Green Spaces Department and was built by a local firm, Espaces Verts du Languedoc. The model was the Katsura villa in Kyoto.
By 1993, the garden had earned both the grand national prize for flowering and the label Jardin remarquable de France. That same year, Tom Petrusson installed his dragon submarine sculpture in the perimeter pond. In 2016, the garden was formally renamed in honour of Pierre Baudis. A bust of Taisen Deshimaru, who established Zen dojos across France in the 1970s, stands on the grounds.
Who and what shaped it
People who shaped it
Landmark buildings
Plan your visit
On the map
When to go
Spring is the garden's most photogenic season — cherry blossoms peak late March to early April, and temperatures climb gently through May. Summers are warm (highs around 28–29°C in July and August) with long evening hours, since the garden stays open until 21:00. The garden closes during wind alerts above 60 km/h, which can occur in any season.
Right now
Background & history adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA) · specs from Wikidata (CC0) · weather from Open-Meteo · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · photos from Wikimedia Commons / Unsplash with per-image credit. No third-party reviews or social posts reproduced.