Pierre-Paul Saunier (1751–1818) was a gardener who worked first at Montbard in the Bourgogne region in eastern France, and then at the Jardin du Roi in Paris where he was a protégé of head gardener André Thouin (1746–1824). In 1785, Thouin selected him to accompany the explorer-botanist André Michaux (1746–1802) to North America where he was to assist in the establishment of a royal garden for the French crown.