Gardens Illustrated: The French Rose; Paris to the Loire

We take the Eurostar from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord. On arrival, we travel by coach to Roseraie Val-de-Marne in L’Haÿ-les-Roses, where we start with a delicious light lunch followed by a tour of the roses with the garden’s curator. Initiated in the late 19th century by Jules Gravereaux, a private collector and owner of the Parisian department store Le Bon Marché, the garden now has more than 11,000 rosebushes and nearly 2,900 species and varieties of rose, making it one of the largest collections of old roses in the world. We then drive to Hôtel Les Pléiades, on the edge of the Forêt de Fontainebleau with time to settle in before an evening meal together.

Though André Eve (1931-2015) is well known in France for his work in hybridising old roses, few people know of his own small garden in the Pithiviers. This garden, full of his favourite roses planted with compatible herbaceous plants - is a joy to see and is maintained to high standards by a group of skilled volunteers. At Le Manoir de la Javeliére Park, we are invited to lunch by the owner, Patrick Masure, and to view his comprehensive collection of wild roses. Next, we visit the nursery that was originally set up by André Eve for a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour of Les Roses Anciennes André Eve where work is still underway creating beautiful new French roses. We then journey on to Hôtel Le Choiseul overlooking the River Loire in Amboise, with time to settle in before dining in the hotel restaurant.

The fairy-tale Château Rivau has a remarkable garden with a remarkable owner. Patricia Laigneau has planned her colourful garden to wrap around the château. With a particular passion for roses, she will take us on a special tour to show how roses are interwoven into all corners of the garden before a delicious lunch together. In the afternoon we have a private visit to the Loubert Rose Collection where over 2,500 different speciesand cultivars of the genus Rosa comprise a French National Collection, its main purpose to preserve and display Rose species as well as old and rare varieties. We then return to Hôtel Le Choiseul for dinner together.

In the heart of Touraine, we find Chédigny, ‘village des roses’, the only village in France to be ranked as a ‘Jardin Remarquable’ for its extraordinary collection of roses and Rose Festival. We are then invited to lunch and Vouvray wine tasting at Château de Valmer owned by the same family for five generations. Today the Count & Countess de Saint Venant still live in the château, their son, Jean de Saint Venant managing the property and vineyards. Later, we visit the gardens of Château de Villandry a unique testament to Renaissance architecture with decorative potager and symbolic ornamental garden. Villandry has long been the epitome of decorative vegetable gardens; the standard of horticulture, attention to detail, and clever design remain a total delight; we meet the head gardener to discuss the standard roses that give the rhythm and the high notes to the potager. We then return to Hôtel Le Choiseul for dinner together.

Moving up-river we pass the village of Cormeray to find a small rose garden, product of the full-blown passion of owner, Brigitte Chiron- Charaud. We then find Les Jardins de Roquelin where Stephane Chassine, who previously worked for André Eve, has created a very beautiful cottage garden full of his favourite old roses on the banks of the Loire. The coach will then drive to Paris, Gare du Nord for our evening Eurostar service to London St Pancras.