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The Joy of French Gardens From the Dordogne to the Île de France FROM THE GIANT LANDSCAPES OF ANDRÉ LE NÔTRE at Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte to the small public gardens in every town, French flair with color and design inspires a feeling of joy. A visit to French gardens provides the fun of exploring the widely diverse geography and climate of France. The gardens at the Château de Versailles and at Vaux-le-Vicomte were originally laid out by André Le Nôtre. The Trianon Palace Hotel in the town of Versailles is an elegant and comfortable hotel for visiting both of these seventeenth-century French gardens. This hotel was the location for the signing of the Treaty of Versailles , which ended World War I. Guest rooms with balconies overlook Louis XIV’s hunting preserve. The fields are full of grazing sheep and white cows. The hotel has a delightful breakfast room and terrace that also overlook this peaceful park. The welcoming indoor swimming pool and spa provide the perfect spot for relaxing after a leisurely walk in the park. From the gate on the Rue de Reine there is an easy ten-minute walk to Le Grand Trianon on the grounds of the Châteaux de Versailles. Le Grand Trianon and its garden, as compared to what one finds at Versailles, are on a human scale. The small U-shaped palace, of pink and gray marble, was created by Louis XIV in 1671 as a retreat from the pomp of the Versailles chateau. The gardens in August were planted in red and lavender dahlias in borders with white delphiniums, white lilies, and blue and purple sage. The red, lavender, and blue color scheme created a joyous purple haze over these colorful and geometric gardens. This garden was the perfect destination for an evening stroll, and during our stays we enjoyed it many times. The next morning we visited the magnificent gardens of the Château de Versailles . We were lucky to be there on a Sunday in August when all of the fountains were gushing water and all the beds were bursting with bloom. The main axis runs from east to west, beginning at the chateau and descending through a series of terraces and fountains to the cruciform-shaped Grand Canal. The garden has a diverse array of marble statues. Especially appealing were the bronze statues on the rims of the pools that represent the rivers of France. My favorite fountains were the Apollo fountain with its dashing horses and the fountain of Latona and the Lycian peasants whom she had turned into frogs for stirring a pond from which she was led to drink after giving birth. Latona turned them into frogs for their inhospitality, dooming them forever to swim in muddy ponds and rivers. Both fountains splashed lots of water. Louis XIV used the same group of artists to create the chateau and 66 French Classical Elegance garden at Versailles whom Fouquet had used at Vaux-le-Vicomte. Charles Le Brun is responsible for the statues at Versailles, which form an essential part of the gardens ’ beauty. Le Nôtre designed the garden and aligned it with the center portal of the chateau. Another day we visited the garden at Vaux-le-Vicomte, which was finished in 1661 by Le Nôtre for Louis XIV’s finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet. This splendid garden and chateau are the epitome of cultivated taste in seventeenth-century France. The garden is a masterpiece of subtle changing levels. On the day of our visit in August, it was exquisitely planted in lavender and white annuals. From a dominant axis on the front steps of the chateau, a broad tapis vert (greensward) runs to the horizon, which is marked by a giant statue of Hercules. The interior of Vaux was decorated by Charles Le Brun with marvelous ceiling paintings and elegant gilt furniture. The views over the garden provide a grand and infinite perspective. Wealthy Parisians discovered the coast of Normandy in the 1890s. Today it is a two-hour drive from the town of Versailles. Upper Normandy, near Dieppe, became an intellectual haven for writers and artists at the end of the nineteenth century . The wooded valleys and rich pasture land created a tradition of gentlemanly provincial gardening. Two superb examples of that tradition are Bois des Moutiers in upper Normandy near Dieppe and Château de Brecy near Bayeux in lower Normandy. Douce France...

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