Gardens of France

The Remarkable Gardens of France is intended to be a list and description, by region, of the more than three hundred gardens classified as ''"Jardins remarquables"'' by the Ministry of Culture and the Comité des Parcs et Jardins de France.

Gardens of Alsace

Bas-Rhin

* Brumath - Jardin de l'Escalier. (1973) Small private modern romantic floral garden
(See Photos)
* Kintzheim – The Park of Ruins of the Château de Kintzheim. An early 19th-century romantic landscape garden
(See photos)
* Kolbsheim – The Garden of the Château de Kolbsheim. (1703) French garden and English landscape park.
(See photos)
* Ottrott – Le Domaine de Windeck. (1835). Romantic landscape park, with views of the ruined castle of Ottrott
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* Plobsheim – Le Jardin de Marguerite. (1990) Small private English "secret" garden in the Alsatian village of Plobsheim
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* Saverne – Jardin botanique du col de Saverne. Botanical garden in an enclave in the Vosges Forest.
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* Strasbourg – Jardin botanique de l'Université de Strasbourg. Founded in 1619, the second-oldest botanical garden in France
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* Uttenhoffen – Jardin de la Ferme Bleue. Modern garden on the site of a 17th-century farm
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Haut-Rhin

* Guebwiller – Parc de la Marseillaise. Public arboretum and botanical garden, designed by Édouard André between 1897 and 1899
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* Husseren-Wesserling – Parc de Wesserling (17 hectares) Private garden at the site of a hunting lodge of the prince-abbey of Murbach (1699). Formal French garden, flower garden, kitchen garden, field garden and contemporary garden
(see photos)
* Mulhouse – Parc Zoologique et Botanique de Mulhouse. (25 hectares) Public botanical gardens and zoo, English landscape par
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* Riedisheim – Park Alfred Wallach. Created in 1935 by Paris landscape architect Achille Duchêne; stairways connecting the different parts of the garden; and tree-shaded allées
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Gardens of Aquitaine

Dordogne

* Domme – Park and Boxwood Garden of the Château de Caudon. A garden à la française and French landscape garden, created between 1808 and 1814 by the Marquis Jacques de Malville, one of the authors of the French Civil Code.
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* Eymet – Park and Kitchen Garden of Pouthet. A small 18th-century château in the valley of the Dropt River features an avenue of cedar planted in 1860; cyclamen, crocus and jonquil in season; and a garden of vegetables and flowers grouped by color
(See pictures.)
* Hautefort – Gardens of the Château de Hautefort. The château was reconstructed in the 17th century, and embellished with a garden à la française (''jardin à la française''). In 1853, the gardens were redone by the celebrated landscape architect the Count of Choulot, and the château, gardens and landscape were unified, with geometric flower gardens, topiary gardens imitating the domes of the château, and a long tunnel of greenery. Next to the formal gardens is a hill with an Italian garden with winding shaded paths. Notable trees in the park include a ''Magnolia grandiflora'' and a Cedar of Lebanon.
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* Le Buisson-de-Cadouin – Garden of Planbuisson. The garden presents two hundred and sixty four different types of bamboo, from dwarf bamboo to giant, as well as exotic trees, such as ''Paulownia fortunei''. The garden is particularly attractive at the end of summer, autumn and winter
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* Saint-Cybranet – Gardens of Albarède An unusual modern garden, created by landscape architect Serge Lapouge. The garden features one thousand species adapted to the dry and rigorous climate and poor soil of the region. It presents fruit trees, aromatic plants, a topiary garden, old types of vegetables and roses, as well as examples of the rural architecture of the Périgord region
(see photos)

* Saint-Germain-de-Belvès – Garden of Conty. A French hilltop garden in Périgord, inspired by the gardens of Tuscany. The garden features cypress trees from Italy, chestnut, plane trees, walnut and oak, a wide variety of fruit trees, and a Medieval kitchen garden
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* Manor d'Eyrignac in Salignac-Eyvigues – A garden à la française and French landscape garden from the 18th century, recreated in the 20th century, surround a 17th-century manor house on a hill, with water coming from seven springs
(see photos)

* Thonac – Gardens of the Château de Losse. The pleasure garden of a Renaissance château next to the Vézère River, with gardens atop the walls overlooking the river, a tunnel of vines, a fine rose garden, a courtyard with squares planted with lavender, edged with rosemary, and guarded by cypress trees
(see photos)

* Vézac – Gardens of Marqueyssac. Built in the 17th century by Bertrand Vernet, Counselor to the King. The original garden was created by a pupil of André Le Nôtre, and featured gardens, terraces, and a kitchen garden surrounding the château. A grand promenade one hundred meters long was added at the end of the 18th century. Beginning in 1866, the new owner, Julien de Cerval, who was inspired by Italian gardens, built rustic structures, redesigned the parterres, laid out five kilometers of walks, and planted pines and cypress trees
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* Terrasson-Lavilledieu – Gardens of the Imagination (fr: ''Jardins de l'Imaginaire''). This contemporary garden, a public park of the town of Terrasson, was designed in 1996 by landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson to present thirteen tableaux of the myths and legends of the history of gardens. It uses simple natural elements; trees, flowers, water and stone to suggest the passage of mankind from nature to agriculture to the city. It uses a symbolic sacred wood, a rose garden, topiary art, and fountains to tell the story
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* Vélines – Gardens of Sardy. A small garden from the 1950s built around a country house, with a shaded terrace for tea, and intimate landscapes and views inspired by English and Italian gardens.
* Issac – Gardens of the Château de Montréal. The château was built in 1535, in the Renaissance style, on the site of a fortress dating to the 13th and 14th centuries. The gardens were built upon the ramparts of the fortress at the beginning of the 20th century by Achille Duchêne. The lower garden is in the Italian style, and features hibiscus and yew trees, and walls covered with white roses and white clematis. The upper garden is a ''jardin à la française'', with ornamental flower beds and a topiary garden. The garden was badly damaged by a storm in 1999, and has been replante
(see pictures)
* Urval – Gardens of la Bourlie. Originating as the gardens of the château of a noble family of Périgord in the 14th century, the original 17th-century gardens featured a kitchen garden and an early French ornamental garden surrounded by a wall. Later, in the 18th century, a grand axis between the village and the woods was created, along with an alley of linden trees, and a topiary allée of yew trees. In the 19th century a French landscape garden was added, with coniferous trees and varied plants. The château also has fine collection of old roses and fruit trees.

Gironde

* Cussac-Fort-Médoc – Park of the Château Lanessan. The garden is surrounded by the vineyards of the château, in the Médoc wine region of Bordeaux. The château and gardens were built in 1878 by the architect Duphot. The gardens are in the English style, with avenues, lawns, and cedar, cypress and plane tree
(see photos)
* Portets – Gardens of the Château de Mongénan. The château was built in 1736 and the botanical gardens created in 1741 by the Baron de Gasq, inspired by his friend and music teacher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the theories of the botanist Linnaeus, who believed that all plants were valuable, whether they were ornamental, medicinal, wild, or for food. The garden was made to resemble the ideal pre-romantic garden Rousseau described in ''La Nouvelle Héloïse'', full of aromas and colors. The current garden is kept as it was in the 18th century, with vegetables of the era, local varieties of fruit trees, 18th-century varieties of roses, asters, irises, dahlias, aromatic plants, and plants used to make perfume. The tuberoses and jasmine fill the gardens with their aromas.

* Preignac – Gardens of the Château de Malle. These gardens, adjoining a château famous for its sauterne wines, were designed between 1717 and 1724 by Alexandre Eutrope de Lur Saluces, and are considered among the finest gardens of the French classical age. They were inspired by the gardens that he saw in Florence during his grand tour of Italy and his time spent at the court in Versailles. The park has a wide central axis and two terraces, with groups of statues and vases. The statues were done by Italian artists brought there for that purpose in the early part of the 18th century, and represent figures from Greek mythology: Cephalus, Aurora, Cupid, Aphrodite (Venus), Adonis, and Flora, the goddess of flowers and gardens. Other statues represent wine-making, the joys of the hunt and fishing, wine and intoxication. To the east of the first terrace is a small theatre, decorated with figures from the Italian commedia dell'arte: Pantalone, Scaramouche and Harlequin. A stairway leads to a second terrace decorated with statues symbolising of earth, wind, air and fire
(see photos)
* Vayres – Gardens of the Château de Vayres. The château was built on a mound on the edge of the Dordogne River in the 15th century, then rebuilt in the Renaissance when it was given by King Henry IV to the Gourgues family. It was rebuilt one more time at the end of the 17th century. The gardens were rebuilt in 1938 by the landscape architect Ferdinand Duprat. A monumental stairway leads from the château across the old moat to the French gardens by the river, where there are parterres bordered with hedges of yew, and boxwood trees clipped into cone shapes. There is also a flower garden of medieval inspiration, and an English-style park, with cedar, oak, linden, hornbeam and copper beech trees
(see photos)

Landes

* Dax – Park of Sarrat. The park, formerly the home and garden of architect René Guichemerre, was created by him from the 1950s until his death in 1988. It contains his modern house, inspired by the architects Richard Neutra and Frank Lloyd Wright; an impressive alley of plane trees; a French garden with fountain and cascade; an extensive kitchen garden; and a botanical garden with 320 kinds of trees, many of them rare
(See photos)

Lot-et-Garonne

* Le Temple-sur-Lot – The Gardens of Latour-Marliac, created in 1870 by Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac, are devoted entirely to different species of aquatic plants, particularly the water lily. The gardens feature a grotto, a cascade, thermal springs, a wide variety of tropical vegetation, and the oldest nursery for aquatic plants in the world. In 1894, The Gardens of Latour-Marliac furnished the water lilies for the garden of Claude Monet in Giverny
(see photos)

Pyrénées-Atlantiques

* Cambo-les-Bains – Gardens of the Villa Arnaga. These gardens were created beginning in 1903 by the French playwright Edmond Rostand, the author of '' Cyrano de Bergerac'', next to his home, which is now the Edmond Rostand Museum. The house, in the Basque style, looks out at the Pyrenees. To the east of the house is a formal geometric French garden, with fountains, statues, three basins, a topiary garden, an orangerie, a belvedere a pergola, and a "poet's corner". The garden has colorful annual displays of rhododendrons and azaleas. Around the French garden is a wooded English landscape garden, with clusters of oak, maple, chestnut, walnut, linden, and fir trees. The park descends to banks of the River Arraga, where there is a picturesque water mill
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* Momas – Garden of the Château de Momas. The château is surrounded by gardens inspired by medieval gardens; with sculptures, fountains, a kitchen garden and an aromatic garden; old varieties of fruits and vegetables, and two-hundred-year-old oak and fig trees.
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* Viven – Gardens of the Château de Viven. The château was first mentioned in the 11th century; it was completely rebuilt in the 18th century. The gardens were redesigned after the original plan in 1988. The French garden features a colorful mosaic of 2,500 begonias, and more than a thousand roses, adorned with hedges and topiary gardens, a fountain and a pavilion. There are annual displays of camellias, azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, and bougainvilleas
(see pictures)

Gardens of the

Auvergne

Allier

* Villeneuve-sur-Allier – The Arboretum de Balaine is the oldest private botanical garden in France. It was begun in 1804, but largely was the creation of Aglaé Adanson, the daughter of French naturalist Michel Adanson, who was responsible for the Petit Trianon botanical garden of Louis XV. She settled there in 1812, at the age of thirty, and established it as one of the earliest acclimatization gardens in France, designed to accustom exotic plants from France's colonies to the climate of France. Despite the blockade of Napoleon's Europe by the British fleet, Adanson was able to assemble a remarkable collection of plants from around the world. The garden features a romantic promenade around a pond, and more than 2,500 specimens of trees and plants, including a giant sequoia tree from California six and a half metres in diameter, a bald cypress thirty-five metres high, and a Spanish fir planted before 1850. In spring, the garden has colorful displays of camellias, rhododendrons, magnolias, dove tree, viburnum, and dogwoods. In the fall the garden is noted for its irises, old varieties of roses, and hydrangeas
(see photos)

Puy-de-Dôme

Issoire – The Gardens of the Château d'Hauterive were originally part of the domaine of the Abbey of Issoire, founded in the 10th century. The present buildings date to the late 17th century; documents and old watercolors show that the gardens existed in 1680–1691, with much the same plan as today. The gardens are a classical composition of lawns, avenues, eight parterres around a central basin, hedges, and small groves of trees. Flowers include peonies, irises, lilies, delphiniums, sage, lupins and dahlias. The gardens were badly damaged in the storm of December 1999, when 500 to 700 trees were uprooted or broken. The gardens are being restored
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* The Château de Cordès in Orcival. A fifteenth-century chateau with a recreated garden à la française at an altitude of nine hundred meters in the Massif of Mont-Doré.
* Romagnat – Gardens of the Château d'Opme. The château was first built in the 11th century, and belonged to the Counts and then the Dauphins of Auvergne. It was rebuilt in the 17th century by Antoine de Ribeyre, treasurer to the King. The garden dates to 1617. The garden has two parts; a classical garden in the French style, with a circular basin, fountain, and lawns and tree-shaded alleys; and a lower Renaissance garden with fruit trees, flower beds and vegetable gardens laid out in geometric designs. The two parts of the garden are connected by an unusual stone stairway with two revolutions. The fountain with two basins dates to 1617, and is attributed to Androuet du Cerceau
(see photos)

Gardens of

Burgundy

Côte d'Or

* Arceau – Gardens of the Château d'Arcelot. The gardens, located on a gentle slope between the château and a large pond, were created in 1805 by architect Jean-Marie Morel. They feature a Chinese pavilion, old trees, including a giant bald cypress large enough to hold a man inside; and an orangerie, with vegetable gardens and an orchard
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* Athie – The Mill of Athie. The mill was built in the 16th century and continued to operate until the early 20th century, when it was converted into a cheese-dairy. The garden was created in the late 1970s. It contains a large variety of trees, including chestnuts, maples, and sequoias; four hundred fifty varieties of roses, including three hundred old varieties; one hundred kinds of peonies; a gloriette; a pond of water lilies; and topiary shrubs
(see photos)


* Barbirey-sur-Ouche – Garden of the Château de Barbirey. A 19th-century English landscape garden surrounding an 18th-century country house. The garden features terraces, kitchen gardens, an orchard, belvedere, and grotto. Trees include plane trees, cedars, maples, chestnuts, and coast sequoias. The orchard contains pear, plum, apple, cherry, apricot, and quince trees. Seasonal flowers include dahlias, peonies, irises and tulips.
(See photos)

* Lantilly – Kitchen Garden of the Château de Lantilly. A garden from the mid-19th century which contains groves of century-old plane trees, cedar, sycamore and catalpa trees; yew trees pruned into fantastic shapes; a large variety of roses, fruit trees, heliotropes, zinnias, peonies, geraniums, astrantias, and Japanese anemones
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* Saulieu – Park of Saint-Léger de Fourches. The park once surrounded a large 15th-century château, which is now more modest in size. The present park, created in 1840 and enlarged since 1972, features many old local trees; oaks, hornbeams, beeches and copper beeches; holly and larches; more exotic trees, such as coast sequoias, Canadian hemlocks and American yellowwood; and a spectacular display of rhododendrons in bloom between 15 May and 15 June
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* Talmay – Garden of the Château de Talmay. The château is from the mid-18th century; the gardens date to 1752. The gardens have 280 apple and pear trees carved into the shape of bowls; a labyrinth of box trees; hedges of hornbeam; eight giant plane trees planted in 1752; and alleys of peonies, irises and roses.

Nièvre

* Alligny-en-Morvan – Park and Garden of the Château de La Chaux.
A pastoral garden created in the mid-19th century, around a small château and a hamlet of farm buildings. The garden features many trees planted in 1850, including a double alley of giant sequoias; a grove of Cedar of Lebanon; Copper beeches, ash trees and tulip trees; as well as beds of wisterias, roses, hortensias, alleys of pink peonies and blue irises; lavender; a medicinal herb garden; magnolias, rhododendrons, and a carpet of heather.
(See photos)

* Châtillon-en-Bazois – Park and Garden of the Château de Châtillon-en-Bazois.
An English landscape park, a classic French garden, and a modern garden of fountains and basins are placed between a medieval château and a busy canal. The garden has an orangerie with rows of fruit trees and hedges beside the canal; a traditional kitchen garden; and boxwood hedges sculpted into shapes like flocks of sheep
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* Coulanges-lès-Nevers – Gardens of Forgeneuve.
A site of an old iron forge, dating from 1660 and 1820, beside the river Nièvre