In a quest for visual perfection that extended the visit to a castle, André Le Nôtre created a form of plant architecture that was highly appreciated throughout Europe during the Grand siècle. Perfectly organized and reflecting man's mastery of nature, his gardens were the first to contribute to the overall beauty of a place and still illustrate today the French art of living throughout the world.
Descended from a family of gardeners who had served royalty for several generations, André Le Nôtre nurtured his new approach to plant spaces in the heart of an inspiring first playground: the Tuileries Gardens in Paris.
Playing with perspective, staging water in fountains and basins, punctuating paths with statues and topiaries, domesticating plants by installing strictly delimited flowerbeds, perfectly aligning shrubs or mowing the lawn to the millimeter: everything in his approach aims to achieve great aesthetic harmony and to demonstrate the strength of the thoughtful (human intelligence) over the spontaneous (nature left to its own devices).
Contrary to medieval gardens, protected by walls or in the center of cloisters, which were mainly used to grow medicinal plants, the gardens of André Le Nôtre are in the spirit of the Renaissance and its reflections on geometry, optics and perspective, all principles that this "garden designer" transposed into nature.
He thus broke away, aesthetically and symbolically, from the model of the so-called "English gardens" where a free abundance of vegetation gave rise to irregular curves and shapes shaped solely by nature.
The vocabulary used to describe a French garden illustrates the link with the architecture of the building to which it is attached, we speak of rooms (halls, rooms or theaters) to be discovered according to a predefined path, the ground is covered with a carpet of lawn, the trees are trimmed along the paths and we stroll along the water stairs.
In spite of a framework that may appear strict, the French garden also leaves room for fantasy with games on perspective (truncated to correspond to the human view) and lines and motifs whose symmetry is brightened up by flowerbeds, copses, terraces and fountains. These fountains contributed greatly to the success of this gardening art: a bit like fireworks, they attracted a large public intrigued by these innovative hydraulic spectacles.
These shows still make the success of the Great night waters of the Versailles Castle, in the heart of the most famous French garden bequeathed by André Le Nôtre.
To admire others, you can also go to Chambord or Chantilly. Less known but just as representative of this very French know-how, the gardens of the Châteaux of Breteuil (photo 1), Villandry (2) or Vaux-le-Vicomte (3) are also not to be missed.
Valérie from Comme des Français
Discover other famous French know-how:
- 5 centuries of silk from Lyon
- Limoges porcelain
- The Moulin Rouge feather workshop
