Gardens: Glory and grandeur

The very first time that I saw a French garden in the flesh was as the teenage guest of a large and friendly Parisian family. Surrounding their home – a tall, elegantly crumbling townhouse in the suburb of Viroflay – was a romantic semi-wilderness filled with blood-red peonies, perfumed roses and a greengage tree or Reine Claude, from which a hammock lazily swung. Gardened with a very light hand, it was enchanting.

That same summer I visited the Gardens of Versailles, whose intricately manicured parterres, lawns, flowerbeds, formal fountains and vistas were the Sun King Louis XIV’s royal riposte to the magnificence of Château de Vaux-le Vicomte – the one-time home and gardens of his unwisely ambitious and eventually imprisoned minister of finance, Nicolas Fouquet. This one I loved for its theatricality, its grandeur of scale and its history.

In the years to come I’ve since had the chance to visit other remarkable French gardens, or “jardins remarquables” as they are classified by the French ministry of culture, although never anything like as many as I’d wish. All share the same elusive qualities that make them so quintessentially French – a poise, vivacity, originality and ever-so-slightly louche elegance that seems somehow effortless.

But then the French have always been great gardeners. It was French horticulture that gave us the world-famous Vilmorin nursery, that horticultural dynasty that began in the late 18th-century as chief seed supplier and adviser to Louis XV and endured for 200 years, during which time it introduced hundreds of different plants into modern cultivation. French horticulture also gave us Victor Lemoine’s lovely lilacs as well as hybrid roses, a process begun in the early 19th century by French horticulturist André Dupont. He was under the employment of Empress Joséphine, one of the first great rose collectors, creator of the famous gardens of Malmaison and patron of the celebrated 18th-century botanist and botanical illustrator – “the Raphael of flowers” – Pierre-Joseph Redoute.

That long tradition of horticulture continues. The recent interest in vertical gardens? Put it down to the work of the innovative Parisian botanist and ecological engineer, Patrick Blanc and his gravity-defying “green walls”.

Experimental garden design? The French took the lead decades ago with the International Garden Festival at Chaumont, now in its 22nd year. The resurgence of interest in kitchen gardens that are both beautiful and productive, and in organic, homegrown, fresh produce? It surely has a lot to do with those wonderful potager gardens and what the English food writer Elizabeth David admiringly described as “the French attitude of mind towards food”.

Iain MacDonald, the Wexford-based garden designer and co-owner of the Bay Garden who regularly heads up Irish tours of French gardens throughout the summer months for the Travel Department, is another admirer of what he describes as “that great Gallic flair, which they layer on top of a wonderful sense of classic style. The result is something enviably original.”

So, too, is Padraigín O’ Donoghue, organiser of the annual Galway Garden Festival. Held last weekend, this year’s speakers included Patrick and Sylvie Quibel, owners and joint creators of the internationally renowned Le Jardin Plume in Normandy. Another key speaker was Tanguy de Toulgoët, owner of the bio-intensively managed Dunmore Country School in Durrow, Co Laois, where he and his wife Isabelle give courses in gardening and cookery.

Here you can learn to make ice- cream flavoured with rose petals from de Toulgoët’s garden (they grow close to 30 kinds) and discover some of the techniques used by the 19th-century French market gardeners or maraîchers.

In the meantime, if your holiday plans include a trip to France then gardens worth a visit include:
Château Miromesnil, near Dieppe (chateaumiromesnil.com): An elaborate, flower-filled colourful potager/ kitchen garden belonging to a 16th-century chateâu, birthplace of Guy de Maupassant
Le Jardin Plume, near Rouen (lejardinplume.com): An exciting and contemporary garden created by Patrick and Sylvie Quibel that is a potent mix of French formality and naturalistic planting
Les Jardins Agapanthe: Fascinating, plant-filled garden created by landscape architect Alexandre Thomas
Château de Chenonceau, Loire Valley (chenonceau.com/en): Two elaborate flower-filled kitchen and flower gardens dedicated to Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medici
Château du Rivau, Loire Valley (loire-castle-rivau.com): Twelve contemporary gardens inspired by fairy tales around a 15th-century castle
Jardin de Valérianes (jardindevalerianes.e-monsite.com): Three-acre garden in the heart of Normandy countryside, filled with roses and perennials
Jardins d'Angélique, near Rouen: Planted by the Lebellegard family in memory of their daughter Angélique, these gardens features a fantastic mix of plants including Europe's oldest Japanese maple, all set against the backdrop of a 17th-century manor house.
Prieuré Notre-Dame d'Orsan, Maisonnais, Loire Valley (prieuredorsan.com): Modern restoration of a French priory (now a hotel) with orna- mental and productive kitchen garden.

For organised tours of French
gardens, see traveldepartment.ie, for classes at Dunmore Country School, see dunmorecountryschool.ie