Born in St. Germain des Noyers, Seine-et-Marne, Jardin worked seventeen years in Denmark–Norway as an architect to the Danish royal court.

He studied under A.C. Mollet, and won the grand prize (Prix de Rome) for architecture at 22 years of age for his design of a choir or chancel in a cathedral.

At the same time he studied mathematics and geometry with Jesuit priest and physicist Ruggero Joseph Boscovich, and graphics presumably with Giuseppe Vasi.

They were both influenced by contemporary Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and the current infatuation with Roman ruins that were seen as a reminder of a common European past, and could be the inspiration for a new universal design style.

His friend and countryman, sculptor Jacques François Joseph Saly who had been summoned to work in Denmark in 1752 for the royal court, brought Jardin to the attention of King Frederik V as the suitable choice to replace Nicolai Eigtved for the design and building of Frederik's Church (Frederikskirke), now known as The Marble Church (Marmorkirken), work on which had begun in 1749.

The brothers came to Copenhagen that same autumn, and they both were named members of the Royal Danish Academy of Art (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi) on 15 January 1755.

They were also named professors at the school of the Academy, where story goes, on account of their inability to speak Danish, they held lectures in French to an audience of students that didn't understand them.

He presented a new set of drawings at Fredensborg Palace summer 1756, which the King accepted, in spite of the Royal Building Commission's opinion that these plans also were too expensive.

Due to Johann Friedrich Struensee’s cost-cutting measures, a royal resolution was made on 9 November 1770 that building activity would be stopped for a period of time.

Scaffolding, machines and material were sold at public auction, and Jardin was relieved of his duty as Church Building Master with severance pay.

His students at the Academy had included Caspar Frederik Harsdorff, Georg Erdmann Rosenberg, Christian Josef Zuber, and Hans Næss.