French Garden, Public park in Celle, Germany

The French Garden is a public park in Celle, lined with linden avenues, open lawns, flower beds, and a circular pond with a fountain at its center. The paths are wide and well maintained, and the park is divided into areas for walking, sitting, and playing.

The garden was laid out in the late 17th century as a baroque court garden under Duke Georg Wilhelm. French gardeners shaped the original design, following the model of European baroque gardens of the time.

The garden takes its name from the French style brought by the original gardeners, and that influence is still visible today in the layout of its paths and beds. At a central spot in the park stands a stone memorial with an urn and a female figure, recalling someone connected to the court of Celle.

The park lies south of Celle's old town, bounded north by the Herzogin-Eleonore-Allee, a four-row lime avenue about 330 m long, and south by a mulberry avenue. The Magnusgraben runs along its east and south edges. The circular pond measures 95 m across, and the open-air stage stands before the 1611 Renaissance Schlösschen in the eastern part.

The round pond was first depicted in this form in 1770; before that, four rectangular ponds stood on the site. It measures 95 metres across, holds 7,000 square metres of water and is 80 centimetres to 1.60 metres deep. Two old weeping willows grow on its small island.