November is probably not the best month for visiting French gardens, but there were some delightful and unexpected surprises. Because many French gardens place a premium on structural design and minimize the role of herbaceous flowers, several gardens looked quite marvelous in their fall colors. I was also surprised how frequently we encountered gardens with hardy bedding plants that had recently been transplanted.
What follows are eight slideshows of photographs from different locations we visited. My knowledge of French flowers and shrubs is quite limited--though I was occasionally pleased to discover flowers that we have in the Coe garden. With regard to my photo captions, either I'm offering my best guess concerning the plant's identify or my silence indicates that I have no confidence in my best guess.
Here's the order of the eight slideshows. I'm still working on the captions and will update periodically.
--Auvers-sur-Oise
--Paris Gardens: The Tuileries and Square Rene Viviani
--Chateau Gaillard
--The Village of LaRoche Guyon
--Normandy and the American cemetery at Omaha Beach
--The City of Rouen
--Viking Herb Gardens and Gardens on the Banks of the Seine River
--Palace of Mal Maison
~Bob
Auvers-sur-Oise, the home and burial site of Vincent van Gogh
During our one-hour bus ride through the countryside, from our docking site on the Seine to the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, we passed through Giverny and for one second could see into Monet's garden. The first photo in this slideshow is of the famous lily pond. The garden is closed during the winter months so there it was not possible for us to stop and walk through the garden. As for the van Gogh sites, we did spend some time in the boarding house where van Gogh was living when he died. The most memorable moments on this day-trip occurred when we were walking to the van Gogh's grave site and visited the cemetery where he and his brother are buried.
Gardens in Paris: The Tuilleries and Square Rene Viviani (near Notre Dame)
The Square René Viviani, at the edge of the Latin Quarter, provides a marvelous view of Notre Dame Cathedral. Just a few feet outside the park’s entrance is the English-language bookshop, Shakespeare and Company, named after Sylvia Beach's legendary bookshop that was closed when Germany occupied Paris in 1941. Inside the square is an odd-looking sculpture honoring St. Julien the Hospitaller (surrounded by colorful potted mums) and a False Acacia, Robinia pseudoacacia, believed to be the oldest tree in Paris. The tree was planted by its namesake, Jean Robin, France’s pre-eminent gardener in the early 17th century. Although badly damaged during World War I, this locust continues to bloom each year.
Our visit to the Tuilleries was very brief. It was a 45-minute walk from our ship to the garden, and by the time we arrived it was beginning to get dark. We quickly walked around one corner of the park, primarily focusing on a large Jeff Koons sculpture of abstract tulips and the red Peruvian Lilies still in bloom. In a small band stand in the park, a lone musician was periodically playing an instrument that looked like a baritone. After playing a melody for a few seconds, he would stop, pace around the band stand, and then play another short piece.
Chateau Gaillard
The Village of LaRoche Guyon
Normandy and the American cemetery at Omaha Beach
Passages from my travel journal:
The cemetery at Omaha Beach is quite beautiful. Thousands of white crosses (plus a few Star of David markers) neatly arranged in long, straight rows. At one end of the cemetery is a memorial , which includes a long wall with the names of soldiers whose remains were never recovered. At the memorial our group participated in a short ceremony, which included a recording of the National Anthem & Taps, the laying of a wreath at the Memorial, and a brief speech by a French administrator who works at the cemetery. His speech described two young French soldiers from his home town, St. Lo, who fought and were killed in the American Revolution--a reminder of the long history of close ties between France and America. At the end of the service they asked that all veterans step forward for a group photo. Because this is a group of elderly Americans, a lot of Viet Nam era vets in the group.
After the ceremony, we had about 45 minutes to explore the cemetery. MVM and I walked to the chapel in the center of the cemetery. The chapel is quite small, symbolically mixing Christian theology (quotes on the resurrection) and U.S. Patriotism (several flags). At the far end of the cemetery we came upon two large marble (?) statues of female figures, one holding an eagle (I assume symbolizing the U.S.) and the other holding a rooster (France). The grounds around the cemetery are wooded, a mix of trees and understory shrubs, though looking to the west, you could see the Atlantic. Trees I could identify included red twig dogwood, larch, many pine trees (I picked up a small pine cone as a souvenir), a lot of holly, oak trees, willows. Near the memorial were carefully spaced and neatly trimmed trees, perhaps magnolias.
Flowers, Trees, and Gardens in the City of Rouen
Passages from Trip Journal
Our final excursion of this trip was to Josephine's home at Mal Maison. The house is well-preserved and the rooms are full of period furnishings, quite tastefully arranged--though a few rooms were overstuffed with chairs. One room had the David painting of Napoleon on a rearing horse, crossing the Alps, following Hannibal's route. I did notice that David's signature was on the horse's bridle. It's a large painting, quite powerful. Another room had a huge billiards table,perhaps 1/3 longer than a conventional table. We also walked through two bedrooms, a marvelous library, a room with a secret compartment in the parquet floor, a dining room table with silverware facing down so no one can see the coat of arms.
Although we had an excellent tour guide, once the house tour was over, we only had twenty minutes to tour the gardens. At the back of the palace was a meadow, looking rather wild and unkempt, the grass not recently mowed. Many large plane trees and a pond with black swans, which date back to Josephine and her large menagerie. There is a moat around the back of the palace, and at the top of the moat was a flower bed of bedding plants, many still in bloom, though well past their prime. The original planting had apparently been quite neat and orderly with a repetitive pattern to the planting, but by the end of the season, everything looks rather jumbled. Most impressive were a series of huge nicotiana, well over 6' tall, with many red blooms. Also occurring across the bed were ornamental kale, snapdragons, dahlias (a few looked like Bishops with their dark burgundy foliage), cleomes, a salvia with small red flowers, a short plant with small pink blooms, many small pink zinnias, several gomphrena, castor bean plants with fuzzy red seedheads, several vines (perhaps morning glories but no blooms) supported by tall teepee poles, and several beautiful statice.
Just as we were leaving we found a formal flower garden, symmetrically laid out with diagonal walkways converging on a a center. Unfortunately we were already late for returning to our bus so we had no time to explore the garden, but I did take a photo of one flower, a beautiful pink Rosa Galica. As we were leaving the palace, I noticed that we had been walking past a long row of trimmed linden trees. This would be quite a fragrant walk in the late spring "unter den linden" (unfortunately I don't know the French equivalent).
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