Garden In Paris
The Garden of the Palais-Royal. The Palais-Royal was the residence of Cardinal Richelieu in the 17th century until his death in 1642. It was then the residence of the young King Louis XIV and his brother, then of the Orléans family, until the French Revolution, when it was confiscated in 1793. The garden was created in 1731 by the architect Victor Louis and renovated in 1992 by landscape architect Mark Rudkin, who added new promenades and spaces for contemplation. The courtyard of columns designed by Daniel Buren was installed in 1986.
Garden In : Garden Seine et Marne
Champs-sur-Marne - Garden of the Château de Champs-sur-Marne. The château and gardens were created in 1703, in the reign of Louis XIV, by a businessman, Monsieur Bourvallais, who commissioned Claude Desgots, grandnephew of André Le Nôtre, to design a classical garden with a grand perspective of the Marne Valley. In 1739, it became the property of the duc de La Valliére, who had the garden modified by Garnier d'Isle. During the French Revolution the garden was abandoned and used to grow vegetables. In 1801, the park was inherited by the duc de Lévis, who combined it with the park of a neighboring estate and laid out an English-style park, with meadows, groves of trees and winding alleys. In 1895, it was purchased by the Count Louis Cahen d'Anvers, who commissioned landscape architects Achille Duchêne and Heni Duchêne to recreate the original garden à la française.
Fontainebleau - Gardens of the Château de Fontainebleau. The park of the royal residence, covering 130 hectares, is one of the largest and most famous landscape gardens in France. East of the palace is the forest and a 1200 meter long canal created by Henry IV of France. Near the palace is the Grand Parterre, a garden à la française created for Louis XIV, decorated with two large basins, one square and the other circular. Nearby is the Garden of Diane, which was the garden of the Queen, with the fountain of Diane in the center; a pavilion created for King Louis XV of France by the architect Louis Le Vau; and the English garden, created at the time of Napoleon I, crossed by a river, with a large pond and a collection of ornamental sculpture.
Maincy - The Park of the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte was the garden that inspired the gardens of Versailles. The 40 hectares of terraces and fountains were created by André Le Nôtre, working with Louis Le Vau, the architect of the château, for Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680), the surintendant of finances of Louis XIV of France. The distance from the gate to the statue of Hercules is 1500 meters, and the carefully-ordered perspective from the castle is three kilometers long. The magnificence of the gardens and their opening festivities inspired the envy and anger of Louis XIV, who fifteen days later had Fouquet arrested and imprisoned for the rest of his life.
Garden In Yvelines
* Choisel - Park of the Château de Breteuil. A private park and garden of 75 hectares, surrounding the château. The French garden was begun in the 17th century, an English park added in the 18th century, and the French garden was redesigned in 1895 by the owner, Henri de Breteuil, and the landscape architect Achille Duchêne. Major features, including a labyrinth, were added since 1990 by the current owners, Henri-François and Séverine de Breteuil.
Rambouillet - Domaine national. The Château of Rambouillet is the summer residence of the Presidents of the French Republic, surrounded by 147 hectares of French and English-style gardens. The gardens are open to the public when the French President is not in residence. The château began as a simple fortified manor house, purchased by a French knight, Jehan Bernier, in 1368. The avenues of the park led directly into the renowned game-rich forest of Rambouillet. In 1783, it was purchased by King Louis XVI whose wife, Queen Marie-Antoinette, referred to the château as a "gothic toadhouse" (fr: gothique crapaudière). Her husband had an elegant dairy built for her in the park, with milk pails made of Sèvres porcelain. The château and gardens became the property of the French State during the French Revolution. Emperor Napoleon I stayed there several times, the last time on the night of 29-30 June 1815, on his way to exile on Saint Helena. In 1810, Napoleon created an avenue of bald cypress trees (Taxodium distichum). During the hurricane that ravaged the northern half of France on 26 December 1999, the park lost nearly five thousand trees, including the handsome avenue of bald cypresses.
Saint-Germain-en-Laye - The Domaine National of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye was originally the site of a castle of King Louis VI (Louis Le Gros). A chapel was added by Louis IX of France in 1238. The present château was built by Pierre de Chambiges in 1537. It became a residence of the kings of France until 1682, when Louis XIV moved his residence to Versailles. Today the château contains the Musée d'Archéologie nationale (French National Museum of Archeology). The park was created by Le Nôtre in 1663. He added a grand terrace overlooking the valley of the Seine in 1669. In 1845, the landscape garden was added by Loaisel de Treogate.
* Versailles - The Gardens of Versailles (850 hectares), created by André Le Nôtre for Louis XIV between 1661 and 1700, are the best-known and most visited gardens in France, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
* Versailles - The Potager du roi, the kitchen gardens of KIng Louis XIV, located near the Château of Versailles, were originally created between 1678 and 1683 by Jean Baptiste de la Quintinie at the request of Louis XIV, on a swampy section of 9 hectares called the "stinking pond." They were composed of thirty different walled gardens and orchards producing fruit and vegetables for the Court. Today the gardens belong to the National Higher School of Landscape Architecture (Fr: École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage). Twelve gardens remain, with 5000 fruit trees belonging to 350 different varieties, plus a wide variety of vegetables and other plants.
* Thoiry -The Château de Thoiry (450 hectares) and its gardens are privately-owned by Annabelle and Paul de la Panouse. They were originally created in the 16th century by alchemist Raoul Moreau. The gardens were built as a setting for the château, designed by Philibert de l'Orme, They were redone 150 years later by landscape architect Claude Desgot, the nephew of André Le Nôtre, who included optical illusions in the perspectives of the long axes, making distances seem greater. In the 19th century, an English landscape garden was added, including 51 giant sequoias planted in 1852, which obscured many of the original perspectives. Masses of rhododendron and azalea bushes were also added for color. In the 1970s, the owners restored the original axes of the park, and added modern features, including a new labyrinth by Adrian Fisher; an autumn garden by Timothy Vaughn; and a floral border by Alain Richert.
* Montfort L'Amaury. Gardens of the Château de Groussay. A contemporary garden, created between 1950 and 1970 by the French esthete Carlos de Beistegui (who owned the property since 1939). The garden was inspired by Anglo-Chinese gardens of the 18th century, and by the gardens of Swedish châteaux, and is decorated with follies, including a Chinese pagoda, a Tatar tent, and a théâtre de verdure.
* Chamarande - Château de Chamarande. The original Renaissance-style garden (1654) was enlarged between 1739 and 1763, and transformed into a French landscape garden in the 1780s.
* Courances - The Park of the Château de Courances. 17th century water garden and Garden à la française. . In 1870 landscape architect Achille Duchêne restored the formal garden and added a French landscape garden. The château dates to Louis XIII of France.(See photos)
* Courson-Monteloup - Château de Courson. The house and formal French park dates to 1680, the French landscape garden to 1820.
* Saint-Jean-de-Beauregard - Domaine de Saint-Jean-de-Beauregard. A 17th century floral and kitchen garden, enclosed by walls, along with a Garden à la française and a French landscape garden. (See Photos)
Garden In Hauts-de-Seine
* Châtenay-Malabry - Arboretum de la Vallée-aux-Loups. A public French landscape garden, botanical garden and arboretum, created at the end of 18th century by the chevalier de Bignon. Later, Charles-Louis Cadet de Gassicourt, the pharmacist of Napoleon I, added a garden of rare plants. The aboretum was enlarged in the 19th century, and now has 500 types of trees and bushes. The park adjoins the park and residence of the writer Chateaubriand.
* Rueil-Malmaison - The Gardens of the Château de Malmaison, the residence of Joséphine de Beauharnais who bought the manor house in April 1799 for herself and her husband, General Napoléon Bonaparte, the future Napoléon I of France.
* Saint-Cloud - The French landscape garden, Parc de Saint-Cloud of the Château de Saint-Cloud, a royal residence destroyed during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
* Sceaux - The Park of the Château de Sceaux. The vestiges of the formal French-style gardens designed by André Le Nôtre for Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's minister of finance, who purchased the domaine in 1670.
Garden In Val d'Oise
* Ambleville. The Gardens of the Château d'Ambleville. (4 hectares). A private garden, inspired by the gardens of the Italian Renaissance. The three terraces are composed into a garden of the moon, a garden of black and white tulips, and a garden inspired by the painting of Mantegna, Triumph of the Virtues.
* Asnières-sur-Oise - Park of the Royaumont Abbey. The Abbey was built by Louis IX in 13th century, and destroyed during the French Revolution. The cloister garden was restored by Achille Duchêne in 1912, and the medieval herb and vegetable garden, between the kitchen and the refectory, was recreated in 2004 based on the writings of the Benedictine Abbesse Saint Hildegard van Bingen (1098-1179).
* Chaussy - Domaine of Villarceaux (70 hectares). Public French garden, English garden, botanical garden, and flower gardens. The water gardens date from the 17th century, the Louis XV château from the 18th century. The 18th century garden has a rare vertugadin, in the shape of a woman's basket skirt of the 18th century, surrounded by eighteen statues from Italy.
The Garden of the Palais-Royal. The Palais-Royal was the residence of Cardinal Richelieu in the 17th century until his death in 1642. It was then the residence of the young King Louis XIV and his brother, then of the Orléans family, until the French Revolution, when it was confiscated in 1793. The garden was created in 1731 by the architect Victor Louis and renovated in 1992 by landscape architect Mark Rudkin, who added new promenades and spaces for contemplation. The courtyard of columns designed by Daniel Buren was installed in 1986.Garden In : Garden Seine et Marne
Champs-sur-Marne - Garden of the Château de Champs-sur-Marne. The château and gardens were created in 1703, in the reign of Louis XIV, by a businessman, Monsieur Bourvallais, who commissioned Claude Desgots, grandnephew of André Le Nôtre, to design a classical garden with a grand perspective of the Marne Valley. In 1739, it became the property of the duc de La Valliére, who had the garden modified by Garnier d'Isle. During the French Revolution the garden was abandoned and used to grow vegetables. In 1801, the park was inherited by the duc de Lévis, who combined it with the park of a neighboring estate and laid out an English-style park, with meadows, groves of trees and winding alleys. In 1895, it was purchased by the Count Louis Cahen d'Anvers, who commissioned landscape architects Achille Duchêne and Heni Duchêne to recreate the original garden à la française.
Fontainebleau - Gardens of the Château de Fontainebleau. The park of the royal residence, covering 130 hectares, is one of the largest and most famous landscape gardens in France. East of the palace is the forest and a 1200 meter long canal created by Henry IV of France. Near the palace is the Grand Parterre, a garden à la française created for Louis XIV, decorated with two large basins, one square and the other circular. Nearby is the Garden of Diane, which was the garden of the Queen, with the fountain of Diane in the center; a pavilion created for King Louis XV of France by the architect Louis Le Vau; and the English garden, created at the time of Napoleon I, crossed by a river, with a large pond and a collection of ornamental sculpture.
Maincy - The Park of the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte was the garden that inspired the gardens of Versailles. The 40 hectares of terraces and fountains were created by André Le Nôtre, working with Louis Le Vau, the architect of the château, for Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680), the surintendant of finances of Louis XIV of France. The distance from the gate to the statue of Hercules is 1500 meters, and the carefully-ordered perspective from the castle is three kilometers long. The magnificence of the gardens and their opening festivities inspired the envy and anger of Louis XIV, who fifteen days later had Fouquet arrested and imprisoned for the rest of his life.
Garden In Yvelines
* Choisel - Park of the Château de Breteuil. A private park and garden of 75 hectares, surrounding the château. The French garden was begun in the 17th century, an English park added in the 18th century, and the French garden was redesigned in 1895 by the owner, Henri de Breteuil, and the landscape architect Achille Duchêne. Major features, including a labyrinth, were added since 1990 by the current owners, Henri-François and Séverine de Breteuil.
Rambouillet - Domaine national. The Château of Rambouillet is the summer residence of the Presidents of the French Republic, surrounded by 147 hectares of French and English-style gardens. The gardens are open to the public when the French President is not in residence. The château began as a simple fortified manor house, purchased by a French knight, Jehan Bernier, in 1368. The avenues of the park led directly into the renowned game-rich forest of Rambouillet. In 1783, it was purchased by King Louis XVI whose wife, Queen Marie-Antoinette, referred to the château as a "gothic toadhouse" (fr: gothique crapaudière). Her husband had an elegant dairy built for her in the park, with milk pails made of Sèvres porcelain. The château and gardens became the property of the French State during the French Revolution. Emperor Napoleon I stayed there several times, the last time on the night of 29-30 June 1815, on his way to exile on Saint Helena. In 1810, Napoleon created an avenue of bald cypress trees (Taxodium distichum). During the hurricane that ravaged the northern half of France on 26 December 1999, the park lost nearly five thousand trees, including the handsome avenue of bald cypresses.
Saint-Germain-en-Laye - The Domaine National of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye was originally the site of a castle of King Louis VI (Louis Le Gros). A chapel was added by Louis IX of France in 1238. The present château was built by Pierre de Chambiges in 1537. It became a residence of the kings of France until 1682, when Louis XIV moved his residence to Versailles. Today the château contains the Musée d'Archéologie nationale (French National Museum of Archeology). The park was created by Le Nôtre in 1663. He added a grand terrace overlooking the valley of the Seine in 1669. In 1845, the landscape garden was added by Loaisel de Treogate.
* Versailles - The Gardens of Versailles (850 hectares), created by André Le Nôtre for Louis XIV between 1661 and 1700, are the best-known and most visited gardens in France, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
* Versailles - The Potager du roi, the kitchen gardens of KIng Louis XIV, located near the Château of Versailles, were originally created between 1678 and 1683 by Jean Baptiste de la Quintinie at the request of Louis XIV, on a swampy section of 9 hectares called the "stinking pond." They were composed of thirty different walled gardens and orchards producing fruit and vegetables for the Court. Today the gardens belong to the National Higher School of Landscape Architecture (Fr: École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage). Twelve gardens remain, with 5000 fruit trees belonging to 350 different varieties, plus a wide variety of vegetables and other plants.
* Thoiry -The Château de Thoiry (450 hectares) and its gardens are privately-owned by Annabelle and Paul de la Panouse. They were originally created in the 16th century by alchemist Raoul Moreau. The gardens were built as a setting for the château, designed by Philibert de l'Orme, They were redone 150 years later by landscape architect Claude Desgot, the nephew of André Le Nôtre, who included optical illusions in the perspectives of the long axes, making distances seem greater. In the 19th century, an English landscape garden was added, including 51 giant sequoias planted in 1852, which obscured many of the original perspectives. Masses of rhododendron and azalea bushes were also added for color. In the 1970s, the owners restored the original axes of the park, and added modern features, including a new labyrinth by Adrian Fisher; an autumn garden by Timothy Vaughn; and a floral border by Alain Richert.
* Montfort L'Amaury. Gardens of the Château de Groussay. A contemporary garden, created between 1950 and 1970 by the French esthete Carlos de Beistegui (who owned the property since 1939). The garden was inspired by Anglo-Chinese gardens of the 18th century, and by the gardens of Swedish châteaux, and is decorated with follies, including a Chinese pagoda, a Tatar tent, and a théâtre de verdure.
* Chamarande - Château de Chamarande. The original Renaissance-style garden (1654) was enlarged between 1739 and 1763, and transformed into a French landscape garden in the 1780s.
* Courances - The Park of the Château de Courances. 17th century water garden and Garden à la française. . In 1870 landscape architect Achille Duchêne restored the formal garden and added a French landscape garden. The château dates to Louis XIII of France.(See photos)
* Courson-Monteloup - Château de Courson. The house and formal French park dates to 1680, the French landscape garden to 1820.
* Saint-Jean-de-Beauregard - Domaine de Saint-Jean-de-Beauregard. A 17th century floral and kitchen garden, enclosed by walls, along with a Garden à la française and a French landscape garden. (See Photos)
Garden In Hauts-de-Seine
* Châtenay-Malabry - Arboretum de la Vallée-aux-Loups. A public French landscape garden, botanical garden and arboretum, created at the end of 18th century by the chevalier de Bignon. Later, Charles-Louis Cadet de Gassicourt, the pharmacist of Napoleon I, added a garden of rare plants. The aboretum was enlarged in the 19th century, and now has 500 types of trees and bushes. The park adjoins the park and residence of the writer Chateaubriand.
* Rueil-Malmaison - The Gardens of the Château de Malmaison, the residence of Joséphine de Beauharnais who bought the manor house in April 1799 for herself and her husband, General Napoléon Bonaparte, the future Napoléon I of France.
* Saint-Cloud - The French landscape garden, Parc de Saint-Cloud of the Château de Saint-Cloud, a royal residence destroyed during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
* Sceaux - The Park of the Château de Sceaux. The vestiges of the formal French-style gardens designed by André Le Nôtre for Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's minister of finance, who purchased the domaine in 1670.
Garden In Val d'Oise
* Ambleville. The Gardens of the Château d'Ambleville. (4 hectares). A private garden, inspired by the gardens of the Italian Renaissance. The three terraces are composed into a garden of the moon, a garden of black and white tulips, and a garden inspired by the painting of Mantegna, Triumph of the Virtues.
* Asnières-sur-Oise - Park of the Royaumont Abbey. The Abbey was built by Louis IX in 13th century, and destroyed during the French Revolution. The cloister garden was restored by Achille Duchêne in 1912, and the medieval herb and vegetable garden, between the kitchen and the refectory, was recreated in 2004 based on the writings of the Benedictine Abbesse Saint Hildegard van Bingen (1098-1179).
* Chaussy - Domaine of Villarceaux (70 hectares). Public French garden, English garden, botanical garden, and flower gardens. The water gardens date from the 17th century, the Louis XV château from the 18th century. The 18th century garden has a rare vertugadin, in the shape of a woman's basket skirt of the 18th century, surrounded by eighteen statues from Italy.
