Jardin Turc

[2] Octave Uzanne recalled the garden's bourgeois clientele drawn from the world of business, its family groups and dandies promenading in its formal allées and enjoying beer in the cabinets de verdure that were surrounded by well-clipped greenery, which one might reserve for a private party.

[8] He returned to it in an essay "Le Jardin turc", 16 July 1814, noting that it was fashionable to decry it as bourgeois; unaccompanied young couples strolled in its allées and the ébénistes of the faubourg Saint-Antoine enjoyed beers in its pavilion; parties of too-lively soldiers filled a kiosk lit by stained glass, and everywhere the author seemed to find tête-à-têtes and conversations unsuitable for the children who accompanied him, in a mix of company both good and low that made him reflect that good manners belonged to certain families and not to certain districts.

Louis-Léopold Boilly painted the crowd at L'entree du Jardin Turc ("The Entrance to the Turkish Garden Cafe") in 1812, and showed the genre piece at the Paris Salon that year.

The proprietor of the Jardin Turc, Bonvallet, was among the Marais citizens who strenuously objected to Louis Napoleon's coup d'état of 2 December 1851, calling themselves "Montagnards" to recall the heady days of the First French Republic.

One harangued the people in the boulevard from a balcony of "citoyen Bonvallet, restaurateur", declaring that president Napoléon had placed himself beyond the law; the police soon appeared, and the radicals beat a hasty retreat.