The French Rose Garden: A Celebration of the Rose from Paris to the Loire

Join the tour in Paris at Hotel Sofitel Le Faubourg where late morning we transfer to restaurant Les Belles Plantes for a lunch together before a special tour of Le Roseraie at the Jardin des Plantes, the Botanical Gardens of Paris. This evening we enjoy our first dinner together.

Today we visit two of the most famous rose collections in the world. Parc de Bagatelle where we find two rose gardens, the classic rose garden with over 9,000 plants and 1,200 varieties and the landscape rose garden. Together they display the national collection of modern roses. This is also the site of The International Competition of New Roses that is held every year in June. We then travel to Roseraie Val-de-Marne in L’Haÿ-les-Roses. We start with a delicious light lunch followed by a tour of the roses with the garden’s curator. Initiated in the late nineteenth 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. Return to your hotel in Paris for a free evening. Please note today is France's national holiday, making Paris busier than usual.

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, who will guide us through his comprehensive collection of species and hybrid roses beautifully integrated into an exceptional four-acre garden. 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 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 species and 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. We then return to for dinner together.

A morning visit to the Chateau and 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 the town of Amboise for free time to shop and explore. Dine together this evening at Hôtel Le Choiseul

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. Here we will have lunch. The coach will then drive to Paris. Please note there will be no accommodation as this is the end of the tour.