0:00:03 > 0:00:06What images does France conjure up for you?
0:00:06 > 0:00:11For me it's beautiful houses and gardens, but also glorious
0:00:11 > 0:00:17markets, street cafes, and a deeply formative experience.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21When I was 19, I came to the south of France
0:00:21 > 0:00:24and lived in Aix-en-Provence for six months.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Ever since then I've loved France and everything to do with it.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30And I want to share that passion for the country with you,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33through its gardens.
0:00:33 > 0:00:38I'll discover what their gardens reveal about French history,
0:00:38 > 0:00:42their love of food, the soil, and the arts.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46And why they value order and structure so highly.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52'I'll be travelling the byways of the French countryside.'
0:00:52 > 0:00:55This is what the deux chevaux was made for.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57'Meeting local gardeners...'
0:00:57 > 0:01:00- Bonjour, je m'appelle Monty. - Bonjour, Jose.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03'..tasting the very best of their harvest...'
0:01:03 > 0:01:07Mmm, sometimes this job is really good.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09'..getting to turn on huge fountains...'
0:01:09 > 0:01:10I can hear the water.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15'..and trying to find out what makes French gardens,
0:01:15 > 0:01:17'and indeed the French, unique.'
0:01:17 > 0:01:22Today I'm going to show you formal French gardens, and reveal how
0:01:22 > 0:01:26they were built upon passion, power,
0:01:26 > 0:01:28and ambition...and disgrace.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33In these gardens you can see the story of France itself,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37as the great figures of French history used their gardens to
0:01:37 > 0:01:39express their power.
0:01:39 > 0:01:44They thought nothing of remodelling landscapes, moving villages,
0:01:44 > 0:01:46even diverting rivers.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49And I'll see how this formal style, and a rebellion against it,
0:01:49 > 0:01:53still resonates today in the culture and gardens of modern France.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21This story begins here, by the banks of the River Cher
0:02:21 > 0:02:22in the Loire Valley,
0:02:22 > 0:02:25and at one of France's most famous chateaux.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32The year is 1555.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36The place is Chenonceau, in all its renaissance glory.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41France is under the rule of Henri II.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49The gardens here are amongst the first and most important in France
0:02:49 > 0:02:51and there were two built in sequence.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57The first, the large rectangular one,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01was created by the King's mistress, Diane de Poitiers.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07She was older than him, much older, 20 years older, but he adored her,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10and he gave her the chateau of Chenonceau
0:03:10 > 0:03:11as a statement of his love.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15And once here, she made herself a garden.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18And when she made it, it was a major work.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22It was large, it took four years to build and she put it practically in
0:03:22 > 0:03:26the river, so it needed these vast walls to protect it from the water.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30When it was done and people saw it, they didn't just admire the garden -
0:03:30 > 0:03:31they admired her.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33It was a statement of her power in the land.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44The garden was a lavish status symbol.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48Henri had to raise a special tax to pay for its construction,
0:03:48 > 0:03:53and it was built to be both decorative and productive.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56We know, for example, there was a delivery of 300 apple trees,
0:03:56 > 0:03:59and fruit would have been a key part of it,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02and of course the walls would have had fruit growing all the way round.
0:04:02 > 0:04:03And there were lots of flowers.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07There were irises and lilies and roses,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10so it would have been a very productive place,
0:04:10 > 0:04:12vegetables in there, too, but it would have been lovely,
0:04:12 > 0:04:14it would have smelt lovely.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16There would have been flowers in every season.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18So it would have been this little paradise,
0:04:18 > 0:04:22enclosed and protected, there to be enjoyed in every season and weather.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28I do think that this great terrace that goes right round
0:04:28 > 0:04:34the garden tells us so much about how the garden was used, and viewed.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36Because it wasn't for access.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38This was for Diane, and her friends
0:04:38 > 0:04:42and ladies in waiting to come and walk round.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45You can see them with their wonderful dresses,
0:04:45 > 0:04:48slowly promenading round, the chateau in the background
0:04:48 > 0:04:51and, significantly, the garden below.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53So they viewed it from above and looking inwards.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Diane's garden at Chenonceau is a superb example of an enclosed,
0:05:00 > 0:05:04protected Renaissance garden.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08But five years after she had completed it, the King died.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12His widow, Catherine de Medici, kicked Diane out
0:05:12 > 0:05:16and proclaimed her power by building a garden of her own
0:05:16 > 0:05:18on the far side of the drawbridge.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24In many ways, it's strikingly similar to Diane's,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28with the same inward, enclosed structure.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30Catherine used it for secret meetings
0:05:30 > 0:05:34and political manoeuvring, safe in its enclosed world.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40But within 100 years, the rich and powerful of France would be
0:05:40 > 0:05:44creating gardens on an even more extraordinary scale,
0:05:44 > 0:05:48outdoing each other with ever more ambitious plans.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53Landscapes would be reshaped, huge canals dug
0:05:53 > 0:05:58and rivers re-channelled to supply elaborate water displays.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01These gardens would set a style which has remained
0:06:01 > 0:06:04a hallmark of the French garden ever since.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08One man dominated this new style of gardening,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11and now I want to show you the first of his gardens.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17Visiting gardens is really difficult without a car, so I'm on my way
0:06:17 > 0:06:22to meet a man who's got a car for me and it's rather a good one.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28I used to have a little 2CV years ago,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32and I'm looking forward to driving one again.
0:06:32 > 0:06:33Jacques, bonjour!
0:06:34 > 0:06:36Bonjour! Ca va?
0:06:36 > 0:06:39Voila, oui, ca va tres bien.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46That's lovely.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03So...that lovely feeling.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10So, let's put the key in the right way, it always helps.
0:07:38 > 0:07:39A little bit tight.
0:07:44 > 0:07:45Whoops!
0:07:47 > 0:07:48We're off!
0:07:52 > 0:07:55The man who designed the garden I'm about to visit
0:07:55 > 0:07:58is the most important figure in French garden design.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01His name was Andre le Notre.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03He was born 400 years ago
0:08:03 > 0:08:07and followed his father as royal gardener at the Tuileries in Paris.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13The first garden he was commissioned to make was at Vaux le Vicomte,
0:08:13 > 0:08:1635 miles south-east of Paris.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22Andre le Notre spent 20 years as a royal gardener.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25He also painted, and mixed with a group of sophisticated
0:08:25 > 0:08:28and creative people.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31So by the time he was called to Vaux le Vicomte,
0:08:31 > 0:08:32he was ready.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38France in the mid-17th century was riven with
0:08:38 > 0:08:40rebellion and intrigue.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43The King, Louis XIV, had been on the throne
0:08:43 > 0:08:47since he was a boy, but had only just taken control of his kingdom.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49Le Notre and this brand new garden
0:08:49 > 0:08:52would be at the very centre of a royal power struggle.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00This is the chateau of Vaux le Vicomte...
0:09:04 > 0:09:09..and this is the garden that provoked a king to rage.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16At first glance, everything seems completely ordered
0:09:16 > 0:09:21and absolutely symmetrical, but in fact it's not symmetrical.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23As you look, there are differences on either side.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27But what it is, is harmonious and balanced, and that was
0:09:27 > 0:09:32the ideal that le Notre was aiming for and achieved miraculously here.
0:09:35 > 0:09:40Vaux le Vicomte belonged to, and was commissioned by, Nicolas Fouquet.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43He had risen fast to become France's finance minister,
0:09:43 > 0:09:47and made himself colossally wealthy in the process.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50He wanted to show the world that he had arrived.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54He asked le Notre to do something more impressive
0:09:54 > 0:09:56and radical than had ever been done before.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02The result was a garden with a single great axis which ran
0:10:02 > 0:10:06unbroken from the chateau's entrance to the far horizon.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12Le Notre's big idea was to cut through the landscape
0:10:12 > 0:10:16on a scale that no-one else had ever imagined before.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20And that created the impression of the garden reaching right out.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26Le Notre broke the mould at Vaux by the scale and effortless ease
0:10:26 > 0:10:29in the way that the garden opens out to the visitor.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35Carefully judged changes in level meant the allees, pools,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38cascades, and the canal that bisects the site
0:10:38 > 0:10:42gradually reveal themselves as you walk through.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45Mind you, le Notre had Fouquet's limitless fortune,
0:10:45 > 0:10:50and an army of 18,000 men, to carve this out of the landscape.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56But he also had another weapon in his armour,
0:10:56 > 0:10:58and that was military knowledge.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02By the middle of the 17th century, cannons had developed enormously
0:11:02 > 0:11:05and in response to that, the French in particular
0:11:05 > 0:11:07developed the ability to create ramparts
0:11:07 > 0:11:10with very sophisticated earth-moving skills,
0:11:10 > 0:11:14and le Notre took those skills and applied them to gardens.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19Where once there were 190 acres of farm land,
0:11:19 > 0:11:23le Notre and his army swept away a village and two hamlets
0:11:23 > 0:11:27and diverted a river to create Nicolas Fouquet's garden.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31But beneath the garden there were also half a dozen water reservoirs,
0:11:31 > 0:11:35ingeniously engineered to feed the fountains, and all done by gravity.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40THEY CONVERSE IN FRENCH
0:11:45 > 0:11:47'The head gardener, Patrick Borgeaud,
0:11:47 > 0:11:49'is showing me how it works.'
0:11:49 > 0:11:52You have to turn it like that... do you want a hand?
0:11:57 > 0:11:58Oh, that looks good.
0:12:01 > 0:12:02Yeah, OK, we'll go down.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13OK, here we go.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19Attention, la derniere marche!
0:12:19 > 0:12:20A-ha!
0:12:26 > 0:12:31So, it's the same pump that's been used throughout...
0:12:31 > 0:12:32the same system?
0:12:38 > 0:12:40How much water is in there?
0:12:44 > 0:12:45- That's a lot!- Oui!
0:12:45 > 0:12:46LAUGHTER
0:12:46 > 0:12:48Alors...
0:12:49 > 0:12:51Wait!
0:13:11 > 0:13:13I can hear the water.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18All those millions of gallons of water,
0:13:18 > 0:13:23collected for the entertainment of a few people.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25Fantastic.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47The protected intimacy of a Renaissance garden
0:13:47 > 0:13:52is thrown open and replaced by vast vistas.
0:13:52 > 0:13:57Instead of a safe haven, this garden is about scale and ambition,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01presided over by a giant, brooding Hercules.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05Vaux le Vicomte wasn't just a series of outdoor rooms
0:14:05 > 0:14:09where one might relax, entertain or even scheme.
0:14:09 > 0:14:11This was a garden whose scale
0:14:11 > 0:14:14made it seem like a provocative political act.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18This is a very masculine garden,
0:14:18 > 0:14:23and, above all, it's a statement of power and wealth.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25But that fact was to prove to be its undoing.
0:14:29 > 0:14:34On August 17th, 1661, Nicolas Fouquet threw
0:14:34 > 0:14:38a party in the garden to celebrate the completion of the work.
0:14:38 > 0:14:406,000 people were invited,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43including the 22-year-old King Louis.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48The guests were bedazzled.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52There were wonderful fireworks and fountains
0:14:52 > 0:14:56and even a specially commissioned play and a ballet.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01It was a triumph, except for one thing.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04The King was beside himself with fury,
0:15:04 > 0:15:08at the arrogance of Fouquet showing that he was richer
0:15:08 > 0:15:11and potentially more powerful than himself.
0:15:12 > 0:15:17And just a few weeks later he had Fouquet arrested, and had him
0:15:17 > 0:15:21sent to prison, where he remained for the rest of his days.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27Now, Louis didn't stop there.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29Not only had he got rid of the man,
0:15:29 > 0:15:35he then proceeded to take everything that everyone had admired so much.
0:15:35 > 0:15:36He took statues.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38He even dug up plants.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42And above all, he took the designers,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45amongst whom was Le Notre.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48And he said to them, "I want this.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53"I want it just as good, if not better, and I want it bigger.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55"And I want it at Versailles."
0:16:01 > 0:16:05At that time, Versailles was still a modest hunting lodge.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08But within a year, Le Notre and his colleagues from Vaux le Vicomte
0:16:08 > 0:16:12were busy turning it into a palace and garden fit for a king.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21'The hall of mirrors
0:16:21 > 0:16:24'is the best introduction to the splendour of Versailles.'
0:16:27 > 0:16:29Wow.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35'Light is caught and magnified
0:16:35 > 0:16:39'in over 350 mirrors.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43'And by the time it was finished, in 1680,
0:16:43 > 0:16:48'the palace had grown to over 700 rooms,
0:16:48 > 0:16:52'and from its windows you can gaze down at the enormity of the grounds,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55'with nearly two thousand acres of gardens
0:16:55 > 0:16:59'stretching out to the far horizon.'
0:17:04 > 0:17:08The genius of Le Notre was to take what was already here
0:17:08 > 0:17:11and expand it and transform it.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15There was already an avenue running east to west, so he widened it
0:17:15 > 0:17:20and put in this vast canal with clipped hedges either side of it,
0:17:20 > 0:17:23So that the flat water, the clipped hedges,
0:17:23 > 0:17:29were a perfect expression of domination over wildness.
0:17:29 > 0:17:30And that was a good thing.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33It wasn't considered to be suppression,
0:17:33 > 0:17:36but it was about order and harmony and peace.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40And to have those things, you had to have power and to have them
0:17:40 > 0:17:44in a more dramatic way than anyone else in the world meant that
0:17:44 > 0:17:48Louis Quatorze, the Sun King, was the most powerful man in the world.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55'Just as he'd done at Vaux le Vicomte,
0:17:55 > 0:17:58'Le Notre laid out a series of parterres,
0:17:58 > 0:18:04'elaborate patterns in plants, designed to be seen from above.'
0:18:04 > 0:18:08Originally, parterres got their colour from ground glass,
0:18:08 > 0:18:13broken pots, coloured gravel, but increasingly flowers.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16And as they poured in from all over the world, more and more were used,
0:18:16 > 0:18:18and tulips, for example, went from being incredibly precious
0:18:18 > 0:18:20to being more common.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23And, in fact, there are stories of 150,000 plants coming in,
0:18:23 > 0:18:26plants being put in overnight so Louis would wake up
0:18:26 > 0:18:29and see a new colour scheme, and nurseries made.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33There's one in the South of France where exotics would come in
0:18:33 > 0:18:36and be trialled and grown on to see if they were hardy.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39And if they were good enough, they came up to Versailles.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45While the tourists and I battle with our brollies in the wind
0:18:45 > 0:18:50and the rain, I'm on my way down to the orangerie, to see
0:18:50 > 0:18:54the citrus trees being brought out of their winter quarters.
0:18:54 > 0:18:59Being Versailles, this was built as the biggest orangerie in Europe.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09There are over 1,100 trees here.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Each one has to be brought out in spring
0:19:12 > 0:19:16and then put back into the orangerie in autumn to protect it from frost.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20This style of container, of course,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24is known in England as a Versailles planter
0:19:24 > 0:19:29and it is almost perfect for moving the citrus about.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31In Italy, of course, they're in terracotta pots always.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35But I bet some of them break, and these can be repaired,
0:19:35 > 0:19:37endlessly, because they have metal corners
0:19:37 > 0:19:40and then the oak sides get replaced as needed.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Although I have been told that there are records in the 18th century
0:19:43 > 0:19:45of them collapsing, and just as they're moved,
0:19:45 > 0:19:47the whole thing falls apart,
0:19:47 > 0:19:49and that the secret are the metal corners.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10'Joel Cottin is the head gardener.'
0:20:17 > 0:20:20We all know about Le Notre as a designer
0:20:20 > 0:20:23and a great historic figure,
0:20:23 > 0:20:26but as a gardener, what do you think he was like?
0:21:03 > 0:21:07Versailles took everything that had preceded it and exaggerated it.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10There's just more of Versailles than anywhere else.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13It's still a byword for enormity in a garden.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15And what we see now is not
0:21:15 > 0:21:18so very different from the 17th century.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21It would have been full of people, because the court had to be here.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24They had to be observed, and Louis kept his eye on them.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28Le Notre employed several devices
0:21:28 > 0:21:32to create the sense of scale and surprise.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34Water was perhaps the most important,
0:21:34 > 0:21:38which he used in vast reflective pools of light
0:21:38 > 0:21:41and in a series of extraordinary fountains.
0:21:53 > 0:21:58Another was dramatic allees of tightly clipped trees.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05There are few things in life finer than a good hedge.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09And the hedges here at Versailles are particularly good.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13They are mostly hornbeams, and it lends itself to great big hedges
0:22:13 > 0:22:15because it will grow very tall
0:22:15 > 0:22:20but, at the same time, can be clipped very narrow.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24And this one, for example, is pencil thin so it creates room
0:22:24 > 0:22:27for another, narrower passageway on the other side
0:22:27 > 0:22:31which has a lot of dynamism and energy,
0:22:31 > 0:22:35and I find this completely thrilling.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41On either side of the central axis Le Notre laid out
0:22:41 > 0:22:46a series of bosquets, small woods contained by clipped hedges.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58Merci, merci beaucoup.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02Inside each of these bosquets is an entertainment, or spectacle,
0:23:02 > 0:23:04designed to be visited in turn
0:23:04 > 0:23:07as you make a grand tour of the garden.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11Ha!
0:23:21 > 0:23:25This was Le Notre's last piece of work at Versailles.
0:23:25 > 0:23:30It's the first time I've seen it, and it's known as the salle de bal.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34It was created as a dance theatre. The cascade made a backdrop
0:23:34 > 0:23:39to the ballet performances laid on for the Court.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41Le Notre was in his seventies
0:23:41 > 0:23:46when he created his final baroque extravaganza.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49It is fantastically impressive.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54Although his work was so dramatic,
0:23:54 > 0:24:00le Notre himself seems to have been a modest, self-effacing man.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04Every account of him has a tone of...
0:24:04 > 0:24:08not just respect, but genuine affability.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10People liked Le Notre.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14He was, by all accounts, a good and decent man, just interested
0:24:14 > 0:24:19in his work, he never sought to aggrandise or glorify himself.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23And, tellingly, he remained the King's friend right up to his death.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30He died in 1700, leaving little in the way of plans,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33but gardens in his style would soon be made right across Europe,
0:24:33 > 0:24:37thanks to one book that I've come to see in the library at Versailles.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42Now, this book is really important,
0:24:42 > 0:24:45because it spread the word of Le Notre.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49It was called La Theorie et La Pratique du Jardinage,
0:24:49 > 0:24:54and it includes plans and descriptions on how to make
0:24:54 > 0:24:57parterres, de bosquets,
0:24:57 > 0:24:59boulingains, which, of course,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01is a corruption of bowling greens,
0:25:01 > 0:25:04as well as labyrinths, rooms,
0:25:04 > 0:25:10galleries, cascades, all the elements of the fashionable garden.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15And the really important thing is it includes a lot of Le Notre's work.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19It disseminated it, it spread it across Europe
0:25:19 > 0:25:24and this French formal garden design was enormously influential.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29And through this book, someone could buy it and say, "Oh, I like that.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31"I want that."
0:25:31 > 0:25:34Here we are - a palisade a l'Italien, and then a palisade
0:25:34 > 0:25:39from Chantilly, and then a theatre from Versailles,
0:25:39 > 0:25:41pictures are there, descriptions,
0:25:41 > 0:25:45and it was really like a textbook on how to make gardens.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50The book was translated into English and German
0:25:50 > 0:25:53and soon there were gardens in the new French style
0:25:53 > 0:25:57from Blenheim Palace to Saint Petersburg.
0:26:01 > 0:26:06'But perhaps the most significant of all Le Notre's achievements are
0:26:06 > 0:26:09'the changes he made to the Tuileries Gardens
0:26:09 > 0:26:10'in the heart of Paris.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14'This has been a public garden for hundreds of years, a place
0:26:14 > 0:26:20'for Parisians to meet, promenade, and watch the world go by.'
0:26:20 > 0:26:24'It was Le Notre who laid it out in its modern form,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28'with its carefully-spaced trees and wide pathways.'
0:26:29 > 0:26:31As so often happens,
0:26:31 > 0:26:36it was the combination of technology and genius that came together
0:26:36 > 0:26:39because the graphometer, which is one of these,
0:26:39 > 0:26:43was invented about ten years before Le Notre's birth.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48So by the time he began to use it in his twenties, it was established.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51And it's a very simple instrument, but it did enable him
0:26:51 > 0:26:56to have much grander designs than had hitherto been possible.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00And it works on the basis... you have a fixed base line and you
0:27:00 > 0:27:04take a reading, and you look down through there and there's a hair
0:27:04 > 0:27:08lined up on that, and so I can fix that like that, and it's on a post.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12And then you keep that fixed and move round it,
0:27:12 > 0:27:17and then adjust this off that baseline, look through,
0:27:17 > 0:27:22take a reading, and the angle between the two can be written down.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24So you can put that onto a plan, which means that when you give it to
0:27:24 > 0:27:28your workmen, they can get it exactly right, even if
0:27:28 > 0:27:32it's a mile away and it's a great long canal or a massive avenue.
0:27:32 > 0:27:36And of course that, with his vision, changed everything.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43With his graphometer in hand and an army of labourers, Le Notre
0:27:43 > 0:27:47was able to cut a central access running west, through the garden
0:27:47 > 0:27:53and out on beyond its boundaries, into what was then open countryside.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56Originally, this new magnificent vista
0:27:56 > 0:27:59was named the Avenue des Tuileries.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02Now, of course, it's called The Champs Elysees.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04It remains the spine of modern Paris.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16Well, the only reasonable response to that view is utter amazement.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18It is stunning.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21I actually last saw it 42 years ago, and I couldn't really remember it.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24And I certainly didn't know then that this, of course,
0:28:24 > 0:28:27is the line that Le Notre planted.
0:28:27 > 0:28:29Of course, now we have the Arc de Triomphe
0:28:29 > 0:28:34and beyond, from his planting in the 17th century on,
0:28:34 > 0:28:37cutting through the city into the 21st.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50In the 1980s, Mitterrand, the President,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54had this great arch in La Defense commissioned,
0:28:54 > 0:28:57so now Le Notre's line runs through Paris,
0:28:57 > 0:29:01stretching from the Tuileries to the Arc de Triomphe
0:29:01 > 0:29:05to that arch, running for over five miles.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14The arch is the centrepiece of France's financial district,
0:29:14 > 0:29:16known as La Defense.
0:29:16 > 0:29:1810% of the country's wealth
0:29:18 > 0:29:21is concentrated up in these sky scrapers.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26From their vantage point, France's financial moguls
0:29:26 > 0:29:30can see straight back into the heart of historic Paris.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35That is an extraordinary view,
0:29:35 > 0:29:39and I suppose you could see it as a sort of brutal motorway,
0:29:39 > 0:29:43just bulldozing through the centre of this lovely city.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47Or, you can see it completely in the spirit of Le Notre,
0:29:47 > 0:29:52this control of nature that somehow humanises it at the same time.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54And in that spirit, down here at La Defense,
0:29:54 > 0:29:57is a garden.
0:30:04 > 0:30:06La Defense was begun in the 1950s
0:30:06 > 0:30:10as a defiant symbol of France's post-war recovery,
0:30:10 > 0:30:13and there was only ever one choice of garden style
0:30:13 > 0:30:15to express the power and the wealth
0:30:15 > 0:30:17the city fathers of Paris hoped would be created.
0:30:20 > 0:30:21The garden was put out to competition,
0:30:21 > 0:30:25which was won by an American called Dan Kiley.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27Dan Kiley came to Europe in the Second World War
0:30:27 > 0:30:29as a serving American soldier.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32Whilst he was here, he visited the great gardens,
0:30:32 > 0:30:36and he was enormously influenced by Vaux le Vicomte and Versailles.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39And there's an irony that it took an American
0:30:39 > 0:30:42to bring back the spirit of Le Notre to Paris.
0:30:48 > 0:30:50The choice of planting
0:30:50 > 0:30:53reflects how the world has changed since Le Notre's day.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57It's easy to think of these beautifully-pruned plane trees
0:30:57 > 0:31:00as quintessentially French and particularly Parisian,
0:31:00 > 0:31:01but in fact, they're very practical.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04The reason they were planted, and continue to be planted,
0:31:04 > 0:31:06is because they resisted pollution.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10And an awful lot of Le Notre's trees died out in the 19th century
0:31:10 > 0:31:14because of the increased use of coal, which then polluted them.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18The trees just couldn't cope with this smog that fell on them.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21But of course, plane trees lose their bark,
0:31:21 > 0:31:24so that a year's accumulation of black soot was just shed,
0:31:24 > 0:31:26and they started over again.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28So actually, it's completely practical.
0:31:31 > 0:31:33I wonder what Le Notre would have made
0:31:33 > 0:31:35of this concrete and glass city -
0:31:35 > 0:31:38buildings jostling and competing for space,
0:31:38 > 0:31:42with none of the symmetry or balance of Versailles or Vaux le Vicomte.
0:31:44 > 0:31:48But his legacy can be found in odd corners.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51As you wander around, you discover that off the main drag
0:31:51 > 0:31:53are these side gardens, like this one.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58The cherry today is absolutely at its best.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00And it's not too fanciful to feel
0:32:00 > 0:32:04that Kiley has deliberately taken the idea of the bosquet,
0:32:04 > 0:32:06and instead of having trees and square woods,
0:32:06 > 0:32:10has got these square concrete blocks of flats,
0:32:10 > 0:32:14and then little sort of jewel-like gardens inside them.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20Dan Kiley took the style of Le Notre and expressed it in modern language.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22But everywhere you look in Paris,
0:32:22 > 0:32:25you can see the visual vocabulary of Le Notre's great gardens,
0:32:25 > 0:32:30still closely associated with power, wealth and the state.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33Outside Les Invalides,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36France's military museum and Napoleon's tomb,
0:32:36 > 0:32:41rows of topiary stand like soldiers waiting to go into battle.
0:32:41 > 0:32:43In public squares like the Place des Vosges,
0:32:43 > 0:32:48the plane trees are lined up in strict geometric lines.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52Order, harmony and symmetry are everywhere.
0:32:52 > 0:32:53And not just in gardens.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01Bonjour.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08See, what you have here
0:33:08 > 0:33:15is the extraordinary elegance of French formality.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17It's something that the British can't really do,
0:33:17 > 0:33:19and if we do do it, we copy the French.
0:33:19 > 0:33:25But that symmetry and order, coupled with a refinement -
0:33:25 > 0:33:30it's seen everywhere, and this sort of epitomises it.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33Slightly frivolous, but in the best possible way.
0:33:35 > 0:33:36Choices, choices...
0:33:42 > 0:33:44Tarte citron, s'il vous plait.
0:33:45 > 0:33:46Oui, c'est tout pour le moment.
0:33:49 > 0:33:50- D'accord.- Merci.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00This elegant formality is as relevant today
0:34:00 > 0:34:03as it was in the 16th century.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05But there is another style of garden
0:34:05 > 0:34:10that came about as a result of the greatest crisis in French history.
0:34:10 > 0:34:15At the end of the 18th century, the Revolution disposed of royalty
0:34:15 > 0:34:17and aristocratic power.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23With this came new fashions, not least in gardens.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28The formal style of Le Notre became associated
0:34:28 > 0:34:31with the tyranny of the hated aristocracy,
0:34:31 > 0:34:35and was replaced by a new, liberated informality.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43This is Malmaison, the home of Napoleon and Josephine
0:34:43 > 0:34:44on the western outskirts of Paris.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49There was once a large estate surrounding the house,
0:34:49 > 0:34:50but all that remains today
0:34:50 > 0:34:54is a beautifully-restored wildflower meadow and some woods.
0:34:58 > 0:35:00It's said that Napoleon and Josephine
0:35:00 > 0:35:04planted this cedar of Lebanon to commemorate Napoleon's victory
0:35:04 > 0:35:08at the Battle of Marengo on 14th June, 1800.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12And that was the beginning of the garden here at Malmaison.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16Now, Josephine was a real gardener, and she was a very serious botanist,
0:35:16 > 0:35:22but her real passion, which amounted almost to an obsession, were roses.
0:35:28 > 0:35:32And Josephine's passion for roses was as influential in its own way
0:35:32 > 0:35:35as the parterres of Le Notre.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44Josephine set out to collect every type of rose growing in the world.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49Now, that was reckoned to be about 250 at that time,
0:35:49 > 0:35:53and Napoleon apparently instructed his generals to bring back plants
0:35:53 > 0:35:56wherever they were fighting in the world.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00So all the forces of the French Empire went behind this quest.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04Now, we don't know how successful it was, because when she died in 1814,
0:36:04 > 0:36:08there was no inventory of roses left behind.
0:36:08 > 0:36:13But what we do have is a fantastic pictorial record
0:36:13 > 0:36:15of at least some of her roses,
0:36:15 > 0:36:19because Josephine did commission a Belgian, Pierre-Joseph Redoute,
0:36:19 > 0:36:22to make engravings of her roses,
0:36:22 > 0:36:26and they are amongst the loveliest botanical images ever produced.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30I've got one here, of a rose grown at Malmaison,
0:36:30 > 0:36:34here looking at it at Malmaison, and that in itself is a thrilling thing.
0:36:34 > 0:36:41And it is Rosa indica - Rosier du Bengale Cent Feuilles.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44Now, "cent feuilles" is a hundred leaves, or centifolia.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47The names have changed since Josephine's time,
0:36:47 > 0:36:49but this is probably a centifolia rose,
0:36:49 > 0:36:53which would have grown out there, in the garden.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05There are few roses left at Malmaison,
0:37:05 > 0:37:08but here at Roseraie de l'Hay, some 20 miles away,
0:37:08 > 0:37:11there is a magnificent collection
0:37:11 > 0:37:13brought together by a rose enthusiast
0:37:13 > 0:37:15at the end of the 19th century.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21Jules Gravereaux set out to create a collection
0:37:21 > 0:37:23to surpass even Josephine's,
0:37:23 > 0:37:27including the roses illustrated by Redoute.
0:37:36 > 0:37:42And here it is, in the flesh, nearly 200 years later - Redoute's rose.
0:37:42 > 0:37:47It's called Rose du Bengale, from Malmaison, and preserved as such.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51And to make that link, to know this was what Josephine collected,
0:37:51 > 0:37:54this was what Redoute drew, and here it is, in my hand,
0:37:54 > 0:37:55I'm holding it, I can smell it...
0:37:56 > 0:37:58..and it is heavenly.
0:37:58 > 0:38:00It's a lovely rose. I've never grown it myself.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03But that link is such powerful history.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13You might think of roses as being part of a typically English garden,
0:38:13 > 0:38:16but Josephine was the first person in Europe
0:38:16 > 0:38:20to systematically collect them, and in the 19th century,
0:38:20 > 0:38:23the French were the world's leading rose breeders,
0:38:23 > 0:38:26and the names of many of our best-loved roses,
0:38:26 > 0:38:29such as Colonel de Richelieu, Madame Alfred Carriere,
0:38:29 > 0:38:33Souvenir de Malmaison, or Chapeau de Napoleon, are French.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39I'm on my way to the Chateau of Courson,
0:38:39 > 0:38:4120 miles south of the Roseraie.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44It hosts France's biggest flower show,
0:38:44 > 0:38:47and I want to see if Josephine's floral legacy
0:38:47 > 0:38:50has the same potency in the 21st century.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56Among the 250 stalls, a dozen of them are rose growers.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58Like Denis.
0:38:59 > 0:39:00Bonjour.
0:39:14 > 0:39:15Oui.
0:39:32 > 0:39:33Oui.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37Oui?
0:39:45 > 0:39:48Bon. Merci. Merci beaucoup. Au revoir.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58Despite the rain, I'm having a good time.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02There's an easy informality, which has echoes of Malmaison.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08This is good.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12See, they've got rhubarb for sale, direct from the producer,
0:40:12 > 0:40:14spread out on a leaf on the ground,
0:40:14 > 0:40:17but it's a plant stall, selling rheums.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20Of course, rhubarb is a rheum, and is a cousin of the Rheum palmatum,
0:40:20 > 0:40:24that you grow by your pond, which is entirely decorative.
0:40:24 > 0:40:30And what I particularly like is the way that this stall feels artless.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33This looks like it's just arrived, unloaded the van, put it out,
0:40:33 > 0:40:35and there it is.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38And that does give it a kind of authenticity and real charm,
0:40:38 > 0:40:40that this whole show has.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44There's something truly charming about it.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54The more informal style of gardening was called by the French,
0:40:54 > 0:40:56"Le jardin a l'Anglaise,"
0:40:56 > 0:40:59and certainly most of these plants here at Courson
0:40:59 > 0:41:01would be at home in an English country garden.
0:41:02 > 0:41:04But I wonder if this is also true in Paris?
0:41:10 > 0:41:12This is the Quai de la Megisserie,
0:41:12 > 0:41:15where Parisians have been buying their plants and seeds
0:41:15 > 0:41:17for hundreds of years.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22I've come here to meet Didier Boux
0:41:22 > 0:41:25to find out what the people of Paris are growing today.
0:41:28 > 0:41:29Bonjour.
0:41:30 > 0:41:31Bonjour, monsieur.
0:41:31 > 0:41:32Avez vous Anglais?
0:41:32 > 0:41:35- Just a little.- Just a little?- Yes.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39I understand that you've been working here for three generations.
0:41:39 > 0:41:45- Yes, from here in this shop, from my grandfather...- Yeah.
0:41:45 > 0:41:51- We arrived in 1929 from the Massif Centrale...- Yeah?
0:41:51 > 0:41:56..to sell some plants and beans and seeds for the people of Paris.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01And do Parisians like flowers?
0:42:01 > 0:42:04Do they enjoy flowers and buy a lot?
0:42:04 > 0:42:06They buy flowers.
0:42:06 > 0:42:12In Paris, the French people, they prefer to buy plants like this,
0:42:12 > 0:42:19with flower, and we have two sorts of people to buy in our shop -
0:42:19 > 0:42:22first is the gardener for vegetables,
0:42:22 > 0:42:27so they buy tomatoes, they buy cucumbers, salad, all things,
0:42:27 > 0:42:30in plant and in seeds.
0:42:30 > 0:42:35And after, you have people who live in apartments in Paris,
0:42:35 > 0:42:41- and they want to make a small flower in a big box, that's all.- Yes.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45- And they buy geranium... - You have lots of colour.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47It is... They are all in flower, aren't they?
0:42:47 > 0:42:51- They have...- Yes.- They're not buying plants that will grow -
0:42:51 > 0:42:53they're buying buy plants that are good now.
0:42:57 > 0:43:01So the modern French gardener does love flowers,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04but without the bother of growing them.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07Space in Paris is at a premium.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11It's got more than twice the population density of London,
0:43:11 > 0:43:12so gardens are rare.
0:43:12 > 0:43:16However, I've heard that one of their most upmarket fashion houses
0:43:16 > 0:43:19has managed to fit one into an unlikely place.
0:43:24 > 0:43:25Hermes is a family firm,
0:43:25 > 0:43:29and the roof garden was created for their private use.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37Who'd have thought this would be on a roof?
0:43:39 > 0:43:40It's very smart.
0:43:43 > 0:43:45White tulips...
0:43:45 > 0:43:47White pansies. I bet these are white iceberg roses.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51Looking astonishingly healthy.
0:43:54 > 0:43:57It's funny to see a hawthorn pruned like that.
0:43:57 > 0:43:58That's really interesting.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00A hawthorn, which I think of in my garden
0:44:00 > 0:44:06as just a scrubby part of a hedge, treated as a decorative shrub.
0:44:06 > 0:44:07Lovingly pruned.
0:44:07 > 0:44:08It's nice.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13This garden strikes me as a modern version
0:44:13 > 0:44:14of les jardins a l'Anglaise -
0:44:14 > 0:44:18it's understated, controlled elegance.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25Of course, what this is is international good taste.
0:44:25 > 0:44:30It's stylish, it's chic, it actually smells a bit of money.
0:44:30 > 0:44:35So I guess it's very Parisian, it's probably St Petersburg, New York,
0:44:35 > 0:44:38Boston, who knows, even Shanghai now.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41I bet there's a roof garden in Shanghai that's quite like this,
0:44:41 > 0:44:43probably a Hermes roof garden in Shanghai.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45Um...
0:44:45 > 0:44:48And there does seem to be a language of the wealthy
0:44:48 > 0:44:54that is to do with leather and white and box balls,
0:44:54 > 0:44:57and one part of me feels extremely cynical about it.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01And the other part of me, rather shamefully, just likes it.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06Of course, the other thing, which I bet happens here
0:45:06 > 0:45:10is that terribly competitive business, fashion business.
0:45:10 > 0:45:12And everybody's always looking at each other,
0:45:12 > 0:45:15and they'll be looking over at this roof garden and judging it.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18"Oh, looking a bit shabby," or, "Hmm, that's a bit good."
0:45:18 > 0:45:21Cos actually, if you look over there, there's another roof garden,
0:45:21 > 0:45:23for a company who shall be nameless,
0:45:23 > 0:45:26that clearly could do with a little bit of tending to.
0:45:29 > 0:45:35# I love Paris
0:45:35 > 0:45:40# Why oh why do I love Paris
0:45:40 > 0:45:47# Because my love is near... #
0:45:47 > 0:45:51Given the time, money and manpower involved,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54I thought it might be impossible to find a modern example
0:45:54 > 0:45:58of the kind of lavish formality we associate with Le Notre's gardens.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02However, there is a garden here in Normandy
0:46:02 > 0:46:05that has been made in the last 20 years that I think Fouquet
0:46:05 > 0:46:08and the Sun King himself would have been envious of,
0:46:08 > 0:46:11even if it's only for its scale and its ambition,
0:46:11 > 0:46:13and, to be honest, for its brashness, too.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20Just 20 years ago,
0:46:20 > 0:46:23the garden at Champ de Bataille was an empty field.
0:46:25 > 0:46:27Many million Euros later,
0:46:27 > 0:46:31it's been turned into a garden that Le Notre would be proud of.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37Parterre, central axis, fountains,
0:46:37 > 0:46:43all the hallmarks of the formal 17th century garden are here.
0:46:44 > 0:46:47And it is all the creation of Jacques Garcia.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52Garcia first fell in love with this place as a child
0:46:52 > 0:46:55when he would bicycle past it on his way to school,
0:46:55 > 0:46:56and decades later,
0:46:56 > 0:47:01when he had made a fortune as an international interior designer,
0:47:01 > 0:47:03he then got the chance to buy it.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09The sheer effort, time and cost of creating a garden like this,
0:47:09 > 0:47:11with all modern-day equipment,
0:47:11 > 0:47:16does make the gardens of 300 years ago all the more impressive.
0:47:18 > 0:47:19Oui.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44MONTY LAUGHS
0:47:44 > 0:47:45That's amazing!
0:47:45 > 0:47:47- JACQUES LAUGHS - Amazing.
0:48:01 > 0:48:02Oui.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09So nothing there before at all.
0:48:16 > 0:48:17Oui.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24JACQUES LAUGHS
0:48:24 > 0:48:25Et...
0:49:02 > 0:49:03Mmm.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19But it has evidently been worth it,
0:49:19 > 0:49:20and Jacques is adamant
0:49:20 > 0:49:23that it is more than just a pastiche of Le Notre.
0:49:59 > 0:50:04A garden like this is so outside normal domestic experience
0:50:04 > 0:50:05that it's hard to take in.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07And, you know, you can see what happened to Nicolas Fouquet -
0:50:07 > 0:50:10he tried it, he came to a bad end,
0:50:10 > 0:50:12and Louis XIV could rule the world,
0:50:12 > 0:50:15and so the garden became an expression of that.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17And for Monsieur Garcia,
0:50:17 > 0:50:20it is an incredible thing to attempt to do,
0:50:20 > 0:50:24and he did say if he had known, he never would have tried it.
0:50:24 > 0:50:28And the millions it's cost him, and the years it's taken.
0:50:28 > 0:50:30But how fabulous that it's done.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35The baroque garden was a place that was shiny, it was gold-plated,
0:50:35 > 0:50:40it was splashy and noisy, and absolutely about money.
0:50:40 > 0:50:44So if you come here, which you should do because it's lovely,
0:50:44 > 0:50:47what you're getting is what the 17th century garden
0:50:47 > 0:50:49actually would have been like.
0:50:49 > 0:50:54When you walk here, you're walking in exactly the same spirit
0:50:54 > 0:50:57of a garden that Versailles was, or Vaux le Vicomte.
0:50:57 > 0:51:01It's got under the skin of the 17th century
0:51:01 > 0:51:05in a way that no historical recreation, however accurate,
0:51:05 > 0:51:07ever could do.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12Perhaps Garcia's creation confirms
0:51:12 > 0:51:16that in the end, France's greatest contribution to landscape gardens
0:51:16 > 0:51:21is in the formality and scale set by Le Notre.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24This style of gardening, with its balance, order
0:51:24 > 0:51:27and love of structure, is still at the heart of French life.
0:51:27 > 0:51:29From the modernist allees of La Defense,
0:51:29 > 0:51:32the rows of plane trees in the public gardens of Paris,
0:51:32 > 0:51:36and even in the layout of Paris itself.
0:51:36 > 0:51:40Added to this, Josephine's love of roses and informality
0:51:40 > 0:51:42can still be found.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46I've kept my favourite garden, the Chateau de Courances, to last,
0:51:46 > 0:51:49because it has the best qualities of both styles.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53I want to show you now a garden
0:51:53 > 0:51:55that's about 35 miles south of Paris.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59And I love it, because it seems to me the perfect combination
0:51:59 > 0:52:05of the rigour and formality of the 17th century formal garden,
0:52:05 > 0:52:10and also the charm that comes when a garden is allowed to mature
0:52:10 > 0:52:14and slowly age across the centuries.
0:52:18 > 0:52:20Versailles and Vaux le Vicomte
0:52:20 > 0:52:24have been preserved as they were in the 17th century.
0:52:24 > 0:52:26But Courances shows what happens
0:52:26 > 0:52:29when you allow this formal style to change and evolve.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34First created during the Renaissance,
0:52:34 > 0:52:37the gardens were remodelled in the style of Le Notre,
0:52:37 > 0:52:38but fell into disuse.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43When the de Ganay family bought the abandoned chateau in the 1870s,
0:52:43 > 0:52:47they restored the gardens, and have continued to adapt them since.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54From its beginning, the layout of Courances
0:52:54 > 0:52:56has been hugely influenced by its ready supply
0:52:56 > 0:53:01of that one key ingredient of the French formal garden -
0:53:01 > 0:53:02water.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07In the 17th century, the single most impressive thing
0:53:07 > 0:53:09to have in your garden was water,
0:53:09 > 0:53:11and people went to extraordinary lengths
0:53:11 > 0:53:15both financially and with ingenuity, not to say skill,
0:53:15 > 0:53:19to provide it, to control it, shape it, divert it,
0:53:19 > 0:53:20and to impress people.
0:53:20 > 0:53:25Now, Courances has masses of water, and that's because it's a wet place.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28There are springs popping up all over the place.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31And the net result is that there is a kind of effortless ease
0:53:31 > 0:53:33with which it's carried.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00Perhaps the garden's greatest involuntary transformation
0:54:00 > 0:54:01came in the last war,
0:54:01 > 0:54:02when the Chateau was requisitioned
0:54:02 > 0:54:04by first the Germans and then the Allies,
0:54:04 > 0:54:08and much of the garden was buried under concrete.
0:54:08 > 0:54:12I'm having tea with Philippine de Ganay,
0:54:12 > 0:54:15who's lived here for over 60 years.
0:54:16 > 0:54:20Field Marshall Montgomery was here, very strict,
0:54:20 > 0:54:22he was only nice with...
0:54:22 > 0:54:24I mean, only charming with the children.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28My daughters, who were tiny - seven, eight and ten,
0:54:28 > 0:54:34- and we thought he was very nice, but not very amusing.- Mmm.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37So, what was the garden like just after the war?
0:54:37 > 0:54:40It was a shambles.
0:54:40 > 0:54:42Because as you know, a garden -
0:54:42 > 0:54:45if you haven't taken care of it for four years...
0:54:45 > 0:54:49And my husband, when he came back from Indochina,
0:54:49 > 0:54:53he said, "Ah, I'm going to try and save it."
0:54:53 > 0:54:56And then he changed the park a lot,
0:54:56 > 0:55:01because all the paths used to be in gravel, you know,
0:55:01 > 0:55:04there were people, scratch, scratch all day,
0:55:04 > 0:55:05or in yellow sand,
0:55:05 > 0:55:10and now there's none left apart from this one across,
0:55:10 > 0:55:14all the rest you've been walking on is grass.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17- Yes.- I must say, I think it's a very beautiful
0:55:17 > 0:55:20and very formal, pompous garden.
0:55:20 > 0:55:22Generally, they're formal and pompous,
0:55:22 > 0:55:25but they don't have much charm.
0:55:25 > 0:55:30And I find this has charm, and people say to me, "Oh, c'est charmant."
0:55:30 > 0:55:34Well, it's funny to say that about something like this, you see?
0:55:34 > 0:55:37So I hope they continue liking it as we did.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43By replacing the hard lines and gravel paths
0:55:43 > 0:55:46of the historic garden with lawn,
0:55:46 > 0:55:48Philippine and her husband have made Courances
0:55:48 > 0:55:52into a garden which is both formal and romantic.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02It's interesting how at this time of year in particular,
0:56:02 > 0:56:06mid-spring, the emerging leaves don't cast shade as such,
0:56:06 > 0:56:09they just change the texture of the green.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12So you have all these different green lights,
0:56:12 > 0:56:17from the very pale to the really quite rich and dark, but not sombre.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21And that's lovely, and also because you know that it's temporary,
0:56:21 > 0:56:22it feels precious.
0:56:23 > 0:56:26So the whole thing glows.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34One of the things I love about Courances
0:56:34 > 0:56:39is the way it takes the classic forms of the French formal garden,
0:56:39 > 0:56:41and lets them grow wild to transform them.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47The bosquet at Versailles, a tightly-enclosed little wood
0:56:47 > 0:56:51with the trees peeking out of the top of tall hedges.
0:56:51 > 0:56:55But here, the woods have exploded out, they're mature,
0:56:55 > 0:56:57they've got hundreds of years' worth of growth,
0:56:57 > 0:57:01and the hedges are garden-sized.
0:57:01 > 0:57:03And so the relationship has completely changed
0:57:03 > 0:57:06between the inside and the outside,
0:57:06 > 0:57:08and if anything, I think this looks better.
0:57:13 > 0:57:19The key to this garden is that it is as historical
0:57:19 > 0:57:21in terms of provenance and story
0:57:21 > 0:57:25as any in France, really, but that it has evolved.
0:57:25 > 0:57:27It's evolved in the way that people use it,
0:57:27 > 0:57:31and also in the way that plants have been allowed to grow.
0:57:31 > 0:57:33They've changed and adapted.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36But the spirit of the garden, and that means the framework, too,
0:57:36 > 0:57:37has remained,
0:57:37 > 0:57:42and it's that balance that has been nurtured and maintained
0:57:42 > 0:57:46between the past and the living present that makes it so successful.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52Next time, I get my hands dirty,
0:57:52 > 0:57:54and explore a very different side to French life.
0:57:56 > 0:57:57That's it!
0:58:01 > 0:58:06Their passion for food, and their fantastic kitchen gardens.
0:58:06 > 0:58:09From the monastic tradition, through the great historical proteges,
0:58:09 > 0:58:12to the gardens of Michelin-starred restaurants.
0:58:18 > 0:58:21Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd