Tuesday, July 12, 2011

What lies beyond the wall?


In May 2006, I had the extraordinary pleasure of visiting Robert and Corinne Mallet near Varangeville in Normandy.  Corinne Mallet wrote two books I treasure about hydrangeas.  Robert belongs to the Mallet family whose ancestor Guillaume Mallet built a manor house designed by the British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.

My two daughters and I roamed all around the Parc des Moutiers, the extraordinary gardens that surround the 1898 house.  In front is a walled garden that contains formal paths and borders and a lot of precisely trimmed hedges.  Stretching down to the Atlantic Ocean are more informal gardens planted with gigantic rhododendrons.  

This photo is of the entrance to the front garden.  It's so intriguing to wonder what lies beyond the high walls.  In future posts, I'll show more of this fabulous garden, but tomorrow I'll reveal one of the things you see when you pass beneath the above arch.

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