6 Glorious Gardens and Parks You Should Visit in France
France beckons with its beautiful gardens and parks that are sure to leave you captivated. Whether you seek solace in the serene beauty of well-manicured lawns or find inspiration in the harmonious blending of flora and architecture, discover six beautiful gardens and parks in France handpicked by florist Sandra Sigman.
1. Jardin des Plantes, 5th arrondissement, Paris
Founded in 1625 as a royal garden of medicinal plants, this 68 acre oasis also houses Paris’s oldest zoo, a school of botany and a natural history museum. I enjoy strolling through the grounds to see the incredible bounty of breathtaking blooms and plants.
2. Jardin des Tuileries, 1st arrondissement, Paris
These gardens, which separate the Louvre Museum from the Place de la Concorde, take their name from the tile factories formerly located on the site, Queen Catherine de’ Medici chose to build the Palais des Tuileries here in 1564. André Le Nôtre, the heralded gardener for King Louis XIV, re-landscaped the gardens in 1664 in today’s formal French style. I particularly love these gardens in early spring when the magnolia trees are in full bloom.
3. Parc de Bagatelle, 16th arrondissement, Bois de Boulogne
The park and its château were built in 64 days in 1775 based on a wager between Queen Marie Antoinette and her brother-in-law the Count of Artois. It is one of the City of Paris’s four botanical gardens and a hidden gem. My favourite part of the park is the stunning rose garden composed of 10,000 rosebushes in more than 1,200 varieties.
4. Giverny Gardens, Eure, Normandy
It takes only 1.5 hours by train to travel from Paris to Giverny, where artist Claude Monet lived and created two charming gardens.
The Clos Normand garden contains masses of flowers, fruit trees, and climbing roses, while the Japanese-inspired water garden has bridges, weeping willows, and water lilies. The gardens inspired many of Monet’s most famous paintings.
5. Jardin du Luxembourg, 6th arrondissement, Paris
Queen Marie de’ Medici, the widow of King Henry IV. commissioned the construction of this majestic garden in 1612 when she moved her residence from the Louvre to Luxembourg Palace. The garden’s design took inspiration from the Boboli Gardens in Florence, where she was born. I love seeing all the colourful blooms, shady footpaths, and the central pond circled with those quintessentially Parisian sage-green metal chairs. This garden still takes my breath away every time I visit.
6. Ephrussi de Rothschild villa and gardens, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur
Nine glorious themed gardens lie nestled around the Ephrussi de Rothschild Villa: French, Spanish, Florentine, Japanese, a lapidary garden, an exotic garden, a rose garden, and gardens dedicated to Provence and Sèvres.
From France Today Magazine
Lead photo credit : The landscape garden of Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in Saint Jean Cap Ferrat © Luziana5588 / shutterstock
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