1- Le bosquet de charmes avec vue :
the green room with a view. After passing under an arch of
white wisteria and laburnum, you can see the bocage trough
a window in the curtain of trees.
2- Le bosquet de fougères :
the fern grove.
Under a magnolia grandiflora is a plot of ferns that reminds
us that we are in the "Pays de Fougères" (fern
county).
3- Le bosquet attrape :
the thicket of the trick.
A 17th century conceit. Placed in various parts of the garden,
such curiosities were devised to create a brief and trivial
surprise for the visitor.
4-Le jardin mouvementé :
the undulating garden. A topiary garden of Taxus baccata and
Buxus sempervirens, with half bole Ilex. where the leaves and
flowers of the alchemilla mollis recall of the frothing of
the sea. Intense light during the inflorescence. A screen of
Cupressus obscures the open view tof the sky.
5- Le bosquet des senteurs :
the scented grove. A trefoiled green chamber whose alternated
rib and triangle design is reminiscent of the plans of some
Byzantine churches. In the middle, an octogonal ornamental
basin is planted with scented water lilies and other odoriferated
plants.
6- La rotule :
the knee joint. This connects the two lengths of the broken
diagonal and opens a vista planted with Prunus laurocerasus,
leading to the labyrinth.
7- Le bosquet mystérieux :
the mysterious arbour. A border of thuyas run the length
of the second section of the diagonal path, forming a green
tunnel flanked by two chambers hemmed by the boles of the
Cupressocyparis leylandii.
8- Le théâtre de verdure :
the open air theatre. A newly replanted semi-circular grove
of Taxus baccata,with festooned walls functioning like a real
theatre with four lateral frameworks, a backstage in greenery
and a platform lawn for a stage.
9- Le temple de Diane :
Diana’s Temple. Standing in the right place, facing the
garden,one can see the beautiful double perspective of the
alleys of Thuyas plicata atrovirens to the right and Tilia
to the left, both leading to the chateau.
10- L’allée de tilleuls :
the lime walk. An avenue of regular planting with a view over
the valley.
11- Le bosquet de musique :
the musical thicket. In the round green chamber of Cupressocyparis
leylandii, one can hear the singing of birds, the wind whispering
in the trees and the music of nature.
12- Le labyrinthe :
the maze, a secret room within the garden. Its complexity
at odds with the ordered logic of the rest of the garden
and the global perception of the world.
13- L’allée de glycines :
the wisteria walk, twenty two wisterias on columns of yew (Yin & Yang).
14- Le jardin classique de François Hébert-Stevens.
* Harmonising with the style of the 17th century chateau.
* A parterre designed to be seen from the house.
* Nature disciplined in a geometric arrangement of lines, triangles and hexagons.
* The wole perfectly incorporated in the landscape.
This is the end of the tour of the architectural gardens of la Ballue.
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