Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Gardens!

I was in the Pas de Calais region of France last week, having a wonderful relaxing holiday, flaunting my newly revived French after years of neglect, perhaps showing more confidence than competence. Whatever...I loved it.

Chrissie took me to two of her favourite gardens: Maizicourt and Jardins des Lianes. They were both beautiful, but I fell utterly in love with the latter, which was a smaller private garden.

Eliane and Guy Lebel have spent more than 30 years developing their garden which contains 500 varieties of hydrangeas and 450 varieties of rose. Imagine. It was breathtaking. I've always felt hydrangeas verged towards the dull, the municipal, but not any more. 




The colours and delicacy were stunning. I could have wandered round the woodland paths of the garden all day.















In amongst the shrubs and trees, there were several little playhouses, built for their children. 











The sign says:  
A simple gaze resting on a flower and you have a day filled with happiness. 

2 comments:

marmee said...

Oh that is such a beautiful garden ! I must make a note of it for when I go visit my French kids! I visited Monet's garden in Giverny some years ago in spring and although it of course there were lots of visitors it was a glorious experience! I enlarged one of the photos I took and had it printed on canvas. It hangs in my kitchen and gives me pleasure every single day!

Sue Hepworth said...

Hi Marmee, if you are in the area, do go! Chrisssie and I were the only ones there and it was hard to tear ourselves away at the end of the afternoon.