The Domaine d'Orvès is an arboretum and Provençal garden surrounding an 18th-century

bastide Bastides are fortified new towns built in medieval Languedoc, Gascony, Aquitaine, England and Wales during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, although some authorities count Mont-de-Marsan and Montauban, which was founded in 1144, as the fir ...

located in the commune of La Valette du Var in the

Var Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var (department), a department of France * Var (river), France * Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran * Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...

department of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. It is classified by the French Ministry of Culture as one of the

Remarkable 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 Fr ...

. It is privately owned but open to the public by reservation.

Description

The garden surrounds a Provençal bastide at the foot of Mount Coudon. It features an alley of old olive trees, an alley of stairways bordered by very old

plane trees ''Platanus'' is a genus consisting of a small number of tree species native to the Northern Hemisphere. They are the sole living members of the family Platanaceae. All mature members of ''Platanus'' are tall, reaching in height. All except f ...

oleander ''Nerium oleander'' ( ), most commonly known as oleander or nerium, is a shrub or small tree cultivated worldwide in temperate and subtropical areas as an ornamental and landscaping plant. It is the only species currently classified in the ge ...

trees, and an irrigation system using gravity and a system of wells, springs, fountains and basins at different levels. Trees in the garden include

Photinia serratifolia ''Photinia serratifolia'' (syn. ''Photinia serrulata''), commonly called Taiwanese photinia or Chinese photinia is a flowering shrub or tree in the flowering plants family Rosaceae, found in mixed forests of China, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippine ...

Cocculus laurifolius ''Cocculus laurifolius'', the laurel-leaved snail tree, is a medium-sized, shrubby evergreen tree of the genus ''Cocculus''. It is native to the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains, China, Taiwan and Japan, where it commonly grows to a height of ...

, pinus pinea,

. cypress, fig trees.

pittosporum ''Pittosporum'' ( or ) is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Pittosporaceae. The genus is probably Gondwanan in origin; its present range extends from Australasia, Oceania, eastern Asia and some parts of Africa. ''Cit ...

pomegranate The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae, that grows between tall. The pomegranate was originally described throughout the Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean re ...

, wild quince trees,

loquat The loquat (''Eriobotrya japonica'') is a large evergreen shrub or tree, grown commercially for its orange fruit and for its leaves, which are used to make herbal tea. It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant. The loquat is in the family R ...

trees, and

persimmon The persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus '' Diospyros''. The most widely cultivated of these is the Oriental persimmon, ''Diospyros kaki'' ''Diospyros'' is in the family Ebenaceae, and a number of non-per ...

trees.

History

The house and gardens date to 1691. It belonged to the commune, was rented for a time by the Marquis de Castellane, and then was purchased by the painter Pierre Deval in 1925. During World War II the land was requisitioned by the German army for an artillery position, and many of the trees, including the rows of olive trees, were cut down. The Germans spared only the plane trees in front of the house, because they liked to have dinner in the shade of the trees. After the war Deval and his wife Henriette replanted the trees which had surrounded the house. Beginning in 1993, their daughter Françoise inherited the house and restored and added many new kinds of trees and plants to the gardens.

External links

Official site of the Domaine d'Orvès

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orves, Domaine Buildings and structures in Var (department) Gardens in Var (department)

Description

History

See also

External links