Gardens to explore on your holidays: Picardy

 

The gardens of Viels-Maisons are unique. They are a succession of small gardens created by Madame de Ladoucette by the apse of a XIIth century Romanesque church, which immediately appeal for the romanticism that radiates from the place, the sensation of tranquillity and peace conducive to daydreaming.

 

The walk begins from the little Romanesque church in the village, then takes you to the white garden with its analemmatic dial (to tell the time), followed by the priest’s garden with its thirty-two rectangular flowerbeds around the old well. Next you reach the clematis-clad pergola. From there, you will discover the English garden with its bold plant combinations and its ornamental pond, which is crossed by a little wrought-iron bridge. A path winds around a pink chestnut treeand leads to waves of old osiers and shrubs, planted according to shades of colour.

 

You continue the walk towards the château’s old moat, where a topiary hedge of yew and a garden of hydrangeas guide you into the axis of the château to admire the waterway, its island, its bald cypresses and the waterfall… The tour ends with the labyrinth, recently created on the theme of one of La Fontaine’s fables.

 

Recently replanted (and winner of a garden journalists’ award), the 8-hectare landscaped park, nestling at the heart of the Somme, surrounds a large XVIIIth century residence.

 

The approaches, outside the garden, are also decorated with flowering perennials. A Japanese ambience greets the visitor (prunus, bamboo, weeping trees planted on gravel). You can spend hours strolling around this magnificent place planted with hundred-year-old trees, ancient rose bushes, thousands of perennials, in garden upon garden. Some parts are reminiscent of English gardens, others are closer to gardens in the north, particularly Belgium. But the overall effect is always one of marvellous balance and harmony. Among the outstanding plants, connoisseurs will recognise beech, chestnut, yew, plane trees, ancient holly, paulownias, maple and birch from collections, with gleaming bark, prunus, malus…

 

The owner of the place has brought his childhood memories back to life. The spotlight is on children, with fun areas dedicated to them. Here they can see rabbits, birds, and discover giant plants in the old pond.

 

These gardens offer a superb setting for the Cistercian abbey of Valloires.
They were created thanks to the energy and talent of two people: landscape gardener Gilles Clément, who designed them, and nursery gardener Jean-Louis Cousin, who made available his collection, made up, at the time, of over 3,000 species of plants from Asia and North America. The area is divided into five very different gardens, where the plants are arranged according to their ornamental character. An original and educational way to approach the world of plants.

Here you find a rose garden with a mixture of old, wild and modern varieties, and beds brightened up with medicinal and condiment plants.
The so-called English style "Islands" garden takes us to sixteen different plant destinations, where collectors’ plants are shown to advantage.

The garden of the five senses teaches us, as its name suggests, to touch, smell, look at, and recognise the plants that were used for food or treatment.
The garden of evolution, in homage to the XVIIIth century botanist Lamarck, traces the evolution of plants.
Lastly, the marsh garden gives pride of place to aquatic flora and fauna.