0:00:02 > 0:00:05What images does France conjure up for you?
0:00:05 > 0:00:10Now, for me, there are beautiful houses and gardens of all kinds,
0:00:10 > 0:00:14but also glorious markets, street cafes,
0:00:14 > 0:00:18and some very formative experiences.
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 > 0:00:27And ever 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 > 0:00:32through its gardens.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37'I'll be travelling the byways of the French countryside...'
0:00:37 > 0:00:40This is what the Deux Chevaux was made for.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42'..meeting local gardeners...'
0:00:42 > 0:00:43Bonjour, je m'appelle Monty.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45Bonjour.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49'..tasting the very best of their harvest...'
0:00:49 > 0:00:52Sometimes this job is really good.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54'..getting to turn on huge fountains...'
0:00:54 > 0:00:56I can hear the water.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59'..and trying to find out what makes French gardens,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02'and, indeed, the French, unique.'
0:01:02 > 0:01:06Today, I shall be looking both at the gardens of artists,
0:01:06 > 0:01:09and gardens that are works of art in their own right.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14I'll be visiting gardens portrayed by painters like Claude Monet
0:01:14 > 0:01:16and Paul Cezanne, as well as the work
0:01:16 > 0:01:20of France's most interesting contemporary designers.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24And I'll be trying to find out at what point the French think that
0:01:24 > 0:01:27a garden transcends horticulture and becomes a work of art.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50This is Cafe Nemours in the heart of Paris,
0:01:50 > 0:01:52just round the corner from the Louvre.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57Un kir, s'il vous plait.
0:01:57 > 0:01:58Merci.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04Paris has always attracted artists and intellectuals.
0:02:06 > 0:02:13I remember my grandfather, who died 30 years ago when he was nearly 100,
0:02:13 > 0:02:17telling me how he lived and worked in Paris in 1901,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21and that it was a very sexy, free city where
0:02:21 > 0:02:23they did the can-can, and there was the Moulin Rouge.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26Paris was somewhere that was sophisticated,
0:02:26 > 0:02:31where art was respected and was very creative.
0:02:31 > 0:02:36So, just to come and sit and watch street life go by was more
0:02:36 > 0:02:40exciting than anything else you'd get in Britain.
0:02:40 > 0:02:41Still is.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50That sense of creative freedom can perhaps be dated back to
0:02:50 > 0:02:53the exhibition at the Louvre in 1863 which included,
0:02:53 > 0:02:57for the first time, the early work of a radical group of artists
0:02:57 > 0:03:00now known as the Impressionists.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03Painting directly from nature, painters like Paul Cezanne
0:03:03 > 0:03:09and Claude Monet embraced light and colour as their central themes,
0:03:09 > 0:03:14attempting to capture the essence of a single moment in their canvases.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18And gardens, nature at its most domestic and accessible,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21were to be a common subject of their paintings.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25A series of the most famous of all impressionist
0:03:25 > 0:03:30paintings are displayed here in the Orangerie in the Tuileries gardens.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39They are the eight Nympheas,
0:03:39 > 0:03:43Monet's canvases of water lilies,
0:03:43 > 0:03:46inspired by the water garden he created and then painted again,
0:03:46 > 0:03:47and again.
0:03:54 > 0:03:59Of course, the really overwhelming thing is the scale.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03These are simply enormous paintings.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08They're bigger than most ponds.
0:04:08 > 0:04:10The scale is celestial.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17What's really interesting is that these have become almost
0:04:17 > 0:04:18completely abstract.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23It's as though Monet has immersed himself so closely
0:04:23 > 0:04:28and nearly with what he's painting, and I see him standing right
0:04:28 > 0:04:32close to the canvas, that he's not really painting the garden any more.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37He's painting what the garden means, he's painting light
0:04:38 > 0:04:43and colour and the fact that it's water, it's bouncing off
0:04:43 > 0:04:46and it's becoming abstract and metaphysical
0:04:46 > 0:04:49and that's beautiful.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52That's inspiring.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55He's taken the garden and gone beyond.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01To find out more about Monet's paintings,
0:05:01 > 0:05:03I want to go to the source of his inspiration,
0:05:03 > 0:05:07so I'm leaving Paris and going northwest to visit his garden
0:05:07 > 0:05:11in Normandy, that he made in a small village on the banks of the Seine.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21This is Giverny, the garden of Claude Monet
0:05:21 > 0:05:23and it's a garden I know,
0:05:23 > 0:05:27I've been here twice before, but never before in April.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38Monet found this old cider farm in the village of Giverny
0:05:38 > 0:05:41in the spring of 1883 when he was looking for a home
0:05:41 > 0:05:43to rent for his young and growing family.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49At the age of 43, he was already an experienced gardener and he was
0:05:49 > 0:05:53to spend the remaining 43 years of his life obsessed by this garden.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58As soon as he moved in,
0:05:58 > 0:06:02he set to work transforming the orchard in front of the farmhouse.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06The first thing that strikes me is how fresh everything is.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10When I came here the first time it was high summer and, actually,
0:06:10 > 0:06:13it was surprisingly...not drab, that's the wrong word,
0:06:13 > 0:06:20but it was overwhelmed with foliage and in between colour phases.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22And then when I came here in late spring,
0:06:22 > 0:06:24the colour was incredibly intense.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27But now there's a lightness
0:06:27 > 0:06:31and almost... the colours dance above the borders.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34It's lovely.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Monet laid the garden out in blocks of colour
0:06:38 > 0:06:41like an artist's palette, mixing simple flowers like daisies
0:06:41 > 0:06:46and poppies with more unusual varieties like the species tulips.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50In fact, he grew increasingly particular about the exact varieties
0:06:50 > 0:06:53that would give him the texture and colour that he wanted to paint.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57He once said, "I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."
0:07:00 > 0:07:04In the process of making the garden, he transformed the site.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06But he didn't always get his own way.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12This central alley was flanked, when he came here, with trees.
0:07:12 > 0:07:13There were fir trees and yew trees.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15Now he cut some down,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19and put up these arches on the site of where the trees were.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23But his wife Alice wouldn't let him cut down the fir trees that were
0:07:23 > 0:07:27there, although they were clearly pretty horrid and inappropriate.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30So he kept them, and then he obviously worked on her for a bit
0:07:30 > 0:07:34because he was allowed to cut all off except for the trunks,
0:07:34 > 0:07:35which looks really odd.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39They look like fat telegraph poles and he grew roses up them.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42But then, when she died,
0:07:42 > 0:07:45with a sort of due period of mourning
0:07:45 > 0:07:49for tree and wife, he came out and he cut them down.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58Monet began painting this part of the garden, called the Clos Normand,
0:07:58 > 0:08:02as soon as he moved in and continued to do so for the rest of his life.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05He kept to a strict daily routine, rising at dawn
0:08:05 > 0:08:07and going outside to catch the light.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12And unlike the hordes of tourists, all trying to snap the whole
0:08:12 > 0:08:15essence of the garden in one killer shot, this meant that he
0:08:15 > 0:08:20often worked, systematically, on a number of canvases simultaneously,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24moving from one to the other, around the garden, as the light changed.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30To maintain the right intensity of colour,
0:08:30 > 0:08:32he thought nothing of ripping out hundreds of flowers and
0:08:32 > 0:08:37replacing them almost daily, which is how the garden is still run.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40James Priest is the English head gardener,
0:08:40 > 0:08:42whose job it is to maintain Monet's legacy.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46One of the things I'm interested in
0:08:46 > 0:08:50is the relationship between artist and gardens.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52What do you think about that?
0:08:52 > 0:08:55I think it's a very good parallel.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00The artist is working obviously on canvas, working both with
0:09:00 > 0:09:02a picture to make and...our tools are plants,
0:09:02 > 0:09:04whereas the artist's using paint,
0:09:04 > 0:09:08but we're making something according to what theme,
0:09:08 > 0:09:12artists have different movements, gardens have different styles.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16So we decide on the style we want and we're trying to make
0:09:16 > 0:09:20something most beautiful, harmonious and true to a feeling,
0:09:20 > 0:09:24because an artist doesn't... an artist, to my mind,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27doesn't just make something that's real and cold,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30he makes something that has depth to it and feeling and emotion to it.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32So I think the parallel is very, very close.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35Monet had to know his colours, and how to mix them and how to use them.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39I have to know my flowers and the colours and how to use them.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41So, technically, two different techniques,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44but the final result is very comparable.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47Do you think Monet was a good gardener, or not?
0:09:47 > 0:09:49I think at the end of his life he was a good gardener.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52I think at the beginning of his life, like all of us,
0:09:52 > 0:09:54he had to learn what gardening was about,
0:09:54 > 0:09:55and so he started very simply.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57It took time.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59It took time, it took all his life, yes.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04Today, over 600,000 people a year come
0:10:04 > 0:10:07to appreciate Monet, the gardener.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11Ten years after he first moved to Giverny, Monet sold enough paintings
0:10:11 > 0:10:15to enable him not only to buy the house in Clos Normand, but also
0:10:15 > 0:10:17a plot of land over the road,
0:10:17 > 0:10:19to begin to make his famous water garden.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27The water lilies are not yet in flower.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30I shall make a return visit to see them later in the summer.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38I'm now going south on the TGV to visit a very different garden
0:10:38 > 0:10:42which was also the inspiration for a painter that I love.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45He was a contemporary and friend of Monet's, called Paul Cezanne.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49This means retracing the steps of my much younger self.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Back then, the journey from Paris to Marseilles took all night.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55Now it's a mere three hours.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59The last time I made this journey by train was 1974.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03I was 19, and looking for light, really.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06I'd become entranced by the paintings of Paul Cezanne
0:11:06 > 0:11:09and the way that he used light and landscape,
0:11:09 > 0:11:15and I was completely besotted by the idea of this bright, strong
0:11:15 > 0:11:19light, filtered through landscape and through trees, because by then
0:11:19 > 0:11:23I was gardening a lot and I felt some deep, emotional attraction
0:11:23 > 0:11:28to growth and soil and landscape and I painted a little bit.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31And to see it all come together was thrilling.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35So down I came. And it was a big adventure.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40I still have my journal from those days and it records
0:11:40 > 0:11:44the excitement and wonder I felt on my first visit
0:11:44 > 0:11:45in the light of the south.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49Sunday, 13th October 1974, I woke at seven to find myself
0:11:49 > 0:11:53in broad Provencal sunshine with the train at Arles.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56I spent the rest of the journey gazing at Provence.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59Misty blue mountains, blue sparkling sea, white gleaming rock,
0:11:59 > 0:12:02olive trees, cypress, firs, so beautiful.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06Here's me, at 19, proudly showing my new beret.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08I'd obviously just bought that.
0:12:15 > 0:12:20I change trains and travel on to Aix-en-Provence.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24When I get there, I go straight back to visit some old haunts.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30This is Rue Portalis, where I lived when I was in Aix,
0:12:30 > 0:12:36and it was there, number 20, and I was up on the second floor.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43The market is still here in the square at the end of the street.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47I would come here and scavenge the leftovers, which were nicer
0:12:47 > 0:12:49than anything I'd get in Britain.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51This is a mobilette.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54I had one similar to it, not actually quite as good,
0:12:54 > 0:12:56because this is a Solex where the engine is in front.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58Mine was underneath.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02But this curious hybrid of bicycle and motorbike,
0:13:02 > 0:13:04that were really common 30, 40 years ago -
0:13:04 > 0:13:05you hardly ever see them now.
0:13:05 > 0:13:10But I would set off, bravely, tearing along at 20 miles an hour,
0:13:10 > 0:13:14and if things got a bit dodgy or you ran out of fuel, you could pedal.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23The main reason I was here was to get closer to the paintings
0:13:23 > 0:13:24that so inspired me.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30Paul Cezanne was born in Aix in 1839 and he lived here most of his life.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33He painted the area ceaselessly, distilling
0:13:33 > 0:13:37the essence of the landscape and the southern light onto canvas.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42Cezanne lived in his parental home, Jas de Bouffan,
0:13:42 > 0:13:45and painted the garden in every season.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49Back in the 1970s, I thought that if I went to see the garden,
0:13:49 > 0:13:52it would teach me something about Cezanne's paintings,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55but it didn't prove to be that easy.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58I wanted to find Jas de Bouffan, which I knew was where
0:13:58 > 0:14:02Cezanne was brought up, where he lived most of his life, actually.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05And I thought, maybe, that I could go in and walk around.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08But anyway it was no use, because the gates were firmly locked,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11and it seemed to be very closed down, it was scruffy,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14there was no sign of life, no-one going in or out,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17so I hung around for a bit and went away again.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22Anyway, I now know that I can go in, nearly 40 years later,
0:14:22 > 0:14:25and at last have a look round.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40The garden is very simple.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43It isn't filled with flowers like Giverny,
0:14:43 > 0:14:47but Cezanne loved to paint the lines of the trees and the light
0:14:47 > 0:14:50and the shade filtering through the branches.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56And all the features that are so recognisable from his paintings
0:14:56 > 0:14:58are still here -
0:14:58 > 0:15:00the plane trees,
0:15:01 > 0:15:02the pool,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07and the rather grand house itself.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10In fact, it seems almost untouched since he lived here.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19I've got some postcards of Jas de Bouffan...
0:15:19 > 0:15:21I want to match them up and see.
0:15:21 > 0:15:22It is a very imposing house.
0:15:25 > 0:15:31That sort of thing, look, there's the house, that's good.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Actually, looking at that, I've got another postcard,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39if you look at that, that postcard there...
0:15:40 > 0:15:41is that.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45And there's the pond, look.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48There's the pond, the corner of the pond which is there,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51there's the path, much narrower, and there are the avenues,
0:15:51 > 0:15:53exactly there.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55So he's standing here and painting that.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00And in fact, even that little bit there...
0:16:00 > 0:16:01is this here.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05It's that.
0:16:05 > 0:16:06That's good.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10You see, what's exciting about that
0:16:10 > 0:16:13is that it's not just identifying it.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18For me, a garden is home, it's life, it's childhood memory,
0:16:18 > 0:16:19dreams, all bound up.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21You can't separate it.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23So where Cezanne walked in the garden,
0:16:23 > 0:16:28let alone painted in the garden, connects you to him in a way...
0:16:28 > 0:16:30It means you smell the same smells,
0:16:30 > 0:16:32you hear the same things.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34He would have heard the water trickling.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37And I think that's just thrilling, I think that's really living,
0:16:37 > 0:16:42breathing history in a way that just a postcard can't do.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55When Cezanne was 60, his mother died and the house
0:16:55 > 0:16:57and garden had to be sold.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59Cezanne built himself a small studio
0:16:59 > 0:17:03and garden a couple of miles away, on the other side of Aix.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13It is very lovely.
0:17:13 > 0:17:19It's one's idea of a villa in the middle of a hot day
0:17:19 > 0:17:22and he built it to live in, but he never did.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26He then transformed it into a studio and came up here to work
0:17:26 > 0:17:31every day, and he made a garden from what was farmland.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34Actually, the garden isn't much to look at now, and apparently
0:17:34 > 0:17:37it never was, it wasn't important to him
0:17:37 > 0:17:41in a horticultural sense, but what he loved and painted a lot
0:17:41 > 0:17:43were the lines and shapes of stems and branches
0:17:43 > 0:17:46and the light and colour filtering through.
0:17:49 > 0:17:50So it mattered to him,
0:17:50 > 0:17:54and also having that sort of safety zone around him.
0:17:54 > 0:18:00This was absolutely his space and clearly fired his creativity.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03Now it's sort of been let go, and it's interesting.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06If this was England, and this was National Trust,
0:18:06 > 0:18:09it would be fully restored to exactly the date
0:18:09 > 0:18:10when Cezanne made it,
0:18:10 > 0:18:12but I rather like the way that it's become itself,
0:18:12 > 0:18:15and I rather suspect Cezanne would have liked it, too.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24The garden may have been allowed to grow wild,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27but the studio is beautifully preserved,
0:18:27 > 0:18:33and it does feel as though Cezanne has just walked out of the room.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48This is a letter to Monet, dated 6th July, 1895.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56It's been said of Cezanne
0:18:56 > 0:18:59that he painted still lifes like landscapes,
0:18:59 > 0:19:01and landscapes like still lifes.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05And yet he was one of the first people to paint still lifes
0:19:05 > 0:19:07as though he'd just caught them,
0:19:07 > 0:19:10as though he'd just got their essence before it drifted away.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14And that has a spiritual quality and it's incredibly beautiful.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18And in a way, it's not fanciful to compare that to gardening -
0:19:18 > 0:19:22when you're making a garden, or even just enjoying a garden,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25there is that profound sense of just being in the moment
0:19:25 > 0:19:28and you share it and you know it will change, the weather will
0:19:28 > 0:19:32change, the plant will move on and it'll never be the same again.
0:19:32 > 0:19:37But just for a second, you were precisely there,
0:19:37 > 0:19:41and that's what Cezanne's paintings immediately gave me,
0:19:41 > 0:19:44and have given lots of other people.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56I may have had to wait 40 years to come and see his home gardens,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59but it's certainly increased my understanding of Cezanne's work.
0:20:02 > 0:20:07By coming and walking through his garden and looking at it
0:20:07 > 0:20:10and letting the light fall and just sitting in it quietly,
0:20:10 > 0:20:14I've realised something very profoundly that I hadn't quite
0:20:14 > 0:20:16got from looking at the pictures,
0:20:16 > 0:20:18which is that it's ordinary.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21It's just like lots of other people's gardens.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24Bigger than most, but the content's the same.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26Nothing special here at all.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30And what, of course, Cezanne did was take those ordinary elements
0:20:30 > 0:20:33and utterly transform them.
0:20:33 > 0:20:39Through genius, he made the private and the domestic, the back garden,
0:20:39 > 0:20:44into something that everybody in the world realises as truly great art.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55Cezanne didn't need to create a garden for it to inspire his art.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59But the next garden I want to show you was self-consciously
0:20:59 > 0:21:01made as a work of art in itself.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08To get there, I am reunited with my favourite French car,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11but I can't resist just revisiting a scene
0:21:11 > 0:21:13that Cezanne painted many times.
0:21:14 > 0:21:20Driving a 2CV on a twisty, windy Provencal road...
0:21:22 > 0:21:26on the wrong side of the road, is slightly alarming.
0:21:26 > 0:21:27There we go.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32When I was here as a teenager,
0:21:32 > 0:21:33I worked in the gardens just outside Aix.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35I loved the journey there,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38because the road took me past the spot where Cezanne repeatedly
0:21:38 > 0:21:43set up his easel to paint the great outcrop, Mont Sainte-Victoire.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48Oh look, there's Mont Sainte-Victoire.
0:21:48 > 0:21:49A hell of a view.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54That still thrills me. All this time, I've seen it lots of times
0:21:54 > 0:21:56and it's still thrilling.
0:21:56 > 0:21:58You can imagine what it was like as a 19-year-old.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02It's as exciting now as it was then.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05Every time I saw it, I was in the painting.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09I was here, in the place where the painting was,
0:22:09 > 0:22:10and that was such a buzz.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17Cezanne painted Mont Sainte-Victoire over 80 times,
0:22:17 > 0:22:22and through his paintings, one can chart his move towards abstraction.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24By the time he died in 1906,
0:22:24 > 0:22:29he was increasingly using blocks of colour to build semi-abstract forms.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33This later work of Cezanne helped inspire a radical new art
0:22:33 > 0:22:34movement - cubism.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41I've come 65 miles to the Riviera town of Hyeres to see
0:22:41 > 0:22:44the world's first cubist garden.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48I couldn't get any breakfast at the hotel
0:22:48 > 0:22:50and although it's great being able to get in early
0:22:50 > 0:22:53and see the garden, I've got to have some coffee before I start.
0:22:53 > 0:22:54I can't think.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01The central idea of cubism
0:23:01 > 0:23:06is to show a subject from several perspectives at the same time.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10And it revolutionised the world of art and architecture.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21The garden I'm heading off to see at this time of day
0:23:21 > 0:23:25is called Villa Noailles and it was made in the 1920s
0:23:25 > 0:23:28as the first truly modern garden in France,
0:23:28 > 0:23:34because it's a cubist garden and was deliberately made, really,
0:23:34 > 0:23:38as a continuation of the paintings that the cubists did,
0:23:38 > 0:23:39and the sculptures.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42So it's part garden, part work of art.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46What I don't know is if it's still maintained as it was,
0:23:46 > 0:23:52if it has retained that sense of shocking, new, experimental art.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55I'll find out when I've had a cup of coffee.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06In 1927, Charles and Marie Laure de Noailles,
0:24:06 > 0:24:10aristocratic and hugely wealthy patrons of modern art,
0:24:10 > 0:24:16decided to build a holiday villa, complete with a cubist garden.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21What was unusual, even groundbreaking,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24was that they commissioned the designer, Gabriel Guevrekian,
0:24:24 > 0:24:28to make the garden expressly as a work of art.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35I was quite worried before coming to see this because,
0:24:35 > 0:24:39although I've seen lots of pictures, it looked a bit scruffy
0:24:39 > 0:24:43and I couldn't quite see how it would work as a garden.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49But it does, and it's a relief, because it's all sorts of things,
0:24:49 > 0:24:51it's charming, it's a piece of history
0:24:51 > 0:24:53and it's definitely a piece of art.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00It was originally planted with tulips and standard citrus,
0:25:00 > 0:25:04but from the outset, the plants were always secondary to the planes
0:25:04 > 0:25:07and shapes of Guevrekian's design.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11It is as though he has taken recognisable elements of the garden,
0:25:11 > 0:25:13like a gravel path, and reassembled them
0:25:13 > 0:25:15in different dimensions to create his work.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21It's very nice once you're inside it. It's very different,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25actually, because all the different levels are really working.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32And although there are no paths, it actually feels reasonable to go,
0:25:32 > 0:25:36you feel like a chess piece on a chessboard.
0:25:36 > 0:25:37My move.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45And it's a very friendly space, I suppose,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48which is not a word you'd associate, really, with cubism.
0:25:48 > 0:25:49But it works.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56I like the way with cubism that, although there are no paths,
0:25:56 > 0:26:00the paths that there are, the gravel, is at an angle at the wall.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03So your eye is saying, "path," and yet it's not doing it.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08All part of that cubist mentality of trying to unpick
0:26:08 > 0:26:11the world and put it back together again in a jumble that makes
0:26:11 > 0:26:13you see it with fresh eyes.
0:26:13 > 0:26:14It makes the garden look fresher.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21When it was made, 85 years ago, this garden was revolutionary
0:26:21 > 0:26:26and challenged all perceptions of what a garden was, or might be.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33The De Noailles kept open house for artists and intellectuals,
0:26:33 > 0:26:35making Villa Noailles, for a while, the most fashionable artistic
0:26:35 > 0:26:38centre in the whole of France.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42Pierre Quillet's grandfather was the butler here during that period.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27If the planting hasn't stood the test of time,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29the structure of the garden certainly has.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32And it's still provocative and interesting.
0:27:38 > 0:27:4260 miles north of Hyeres is another garden which has been bought
0:27:42 > 0:27:43and sold as a collector's item.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48Its every detail was created in direct artistic response
0:27:48 > 0:27:51to the landscape that surrounds it.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55There's something I want to see on the way.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57I'm going to make a little detour
0:27:57 > 0:27:59because I've heard that there's a lavender field down here.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03I want to see lavender growing in its natural habitat, so to speak.
0:28:13 > 0:28:14Look at that!
0:28:23 > 0:28:27The thing about lavender grown here is that it's got exactly
0:28:27 > 0:28:28the conditions it wants.
0:28:28 > 0:28:34You've got this very dry limestone soil, look at that,
0:28:34 > 0:28:36it's just powder in my hand.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39And look how healthy it is.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42It's completely found where it wants to be.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46And when I do that, I'm surprised you can't see the air shimmer
0:28:46 > 0:28:50with scent, it's so rich and oily and quite heady,
0:28:50 > 0:28:53it's almost intoxicating!
0:28:53 > 0:28:58And what lavender loves is harsh, extreme conditions
0:28:58 > 0:29:00and really good drainage.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02But it's surprising that there are cherries.
0:29:02 > 0:29:07I mean, cherries we think of as garden of England cherries,
0:29:07 > 0:29:08but they love it here.
0:29:10 > 0:29:12It just shows you what they really like.
0:29:15 > 0:29:16Hmm...
0:29:17 > 0:29:20not quite ripe, but lovely.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23That one looks better.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31Standing in Provencal sunshine, next to a lavender field,
0:29:31 > 0:29:33eating cherries.
0:29:35 > 0:29:36That's quite good.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00The garden I'm heading for is called La Louve.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02It's set in some of the most beautiful
0:30:02 > 0:30:04countryside in the south of France.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08It's up there, somewhere.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11I'll find it.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15It's in the village of Bonnieux, in the heart of the Luberon,
0:30:15 > 0:30:17in Provence.
0:30:17 > 0:30:21I'm coming here to see it as a work of art,
0:30:21 > 0:30:26but it has also set the standard as the dream Provencal garden.
0:30:34 > 0:30:35Good morning, bonjour.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00The garden is modest in size,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03set on a steep slope in the middle of the village.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06It was made by Nicole de Vesian,
0:31:06 > 0:31:10a successful textile designer, using a style that is deceptively
0:31:10 > 0:31:14simple, based around native plants and natural materials.
0:31:21 > 0:31:26I love the way that this garden picks up the rhythm of the place.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30It does it in a number of ways. The obvious ones are in the outlines
0:31:30 > 0:31:32and the shapes that follow the landscape.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36And that's very subtle, it shows that Nicole really looked
0:31:36 > 0:31:37and really observed.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42And didn't copy, but just picked up on that flow
0:31:42 > 0:31:45and let it run through the garden.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52Nicole didn't base her garden on any rare or unusual plants.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56These cypresses are native to the region and lavender,
0:31:56 > 0:31:57of course, loves it here.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03It's not what she used, but how she used it -
0:32:03 > 0:32:07the artistry she employed that makes La Louve so special.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13At every turn, there's a perfectly composed still life.
0:32:19 > 0:32:21Despite the very awkward site,
0:32:21 > 0:32:25La Louve works both as a lovely garden and as a work of art.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29And whilst it seems deceptively simple, it is,
0:32:29 > 0:32:32in fact, edited in every detail.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36This garden is a really good example
0:32:36 > 0:32:40of how to make a small space seem bigger.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42And it does it by two ways.
0:32:42 > 0:32:43One is by filling it.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45And the other is by compressing space.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49The easiest way to do that is by having your walkways
0:32:49 > 0:32:52and your entrances and exits really narrow
0:32:52 > 0:32:54and by compressing them down,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57so you have to sort of squidge through, almost,
0:32:57 > 0:33:00and brush against the foliage, which is lovely,
0:33:00 > 0:33:03because there's a really good scent. It pushes space in
0:33:03 > 0:33:06and then as you come out the other side, it releases it
0:33:06 > 0:33:08and makes it seem much bigger.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11And you'd be surprised how that works every time.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17At the age of 80, 10 years after starting La Louve,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20Nicole decided to sell her garden
0:33:20 > 0:33:22because she wanted to make a new one.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25The art collector, Judith Pillsbury, was the buyer,
0:33:25 > 0:33:28and she purchased it as a finished work of art.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32It was just a coup de foudre, it was just so beautiful,
0:33:32 > 0:33:35it was like being able to buy Sissinghurst.
0:33:35 > 0:33:40When one is buying into, literally and figuratively,
0:33:40 > 0:33:43into a garden that's very established,
0:33:43 > 0:33:45are you obliged to curate it?
0:33:45 > 0:33:49Well, I think one is obliged to curate it, that's what I feel,
0:33:49 > 0:33:53and I'm an art dealer, so I'm used to taking care of works of art.
0:33:53 > 0:33:58The idea of the artist creating their art through
0:33:58 > 0:34:03the medium of horticulture is one that interests me a lot.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07Do you think that it's practical, that one can do that?
0:34:07 > 0:34:09I don't know that Nicole started out that way.
0:34:09 > 0:34:14I think that she was someone who just couldn't stop creating
0:34:14 > 0:34:20and she had a vision of Provence, which at that time was very new.
0:34:20 > 0:34:26I mean, she embraced the vernacular of a peasant garden,
0:34:26 > 0:34:28not very many plants.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31She embraced that and she turned that into something
0:34:31 > 0:34:33that was a positive.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41Nicole Vesian died 20 years ago.
0:34:41 > 0:34:46But her style of Provencal garden has become increasingly influential.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51Although she made a world famous garden, the irony is that
0:34:51 > 0:34:53Nicole de Vesian was, conventionally, no gardener.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57She didn't dig the garden at all,
0:34:57 > 0:35:01there was no attempt to return fertility, she didn't make compost.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04She planted much too close together.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08But she had an absolutely innate feel for two things.
0:35:08 > 0:35:10One was colour and the other was form.
0:35:10 > 0:35:15The colours she's used here are very muted and faded
0:35:15 > 0:35:17and they look terrific under a very bright sun.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21They have a kind of richness and subtle intensity,
0:35:21 > 0:35:25whereas if you use them under grey skies, that just looks drab.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29And the other thing that she just had a superb feel for was space,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32it's a sculptural quality, and her clipping and training,
0:35:32 > 0:35:36it wasn't just to do with organising the plants themselves,
0:35:36 > 0:35:40but the space between plants, the space
0:35:40 > 0:35:44between branches, that captures light and the distant horizon.
0:35:44 > 0:35:49It's just exquisite. And that's gardening of real high quality.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53She may not have known how to grow the plants or even their names,
0:35:53 > 0:35:55but she sure knew how to make them look good.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04I left here, wondering whether you can make a garden,
0:36:04 > 0:36:07or indeed a work of art, by accident.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09Can one drift into the other?
0:36:09 > 0:36:12Or must you set out with a clear purpose and vision?
0:36:23 > 0:36:26To try and answer this, I've decided to look to the present
0:36:26 > 0:36:29and ask three of France's contemporary designers what
0:36:29 > 0:36:33they think the relationship is between their gardens and art.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43One uses his plants as living sculpture.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46Another takes the elements of the traditional French formal
0:36:46 > 0:36:50gardens and re-invents them to elegant effect.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52And the third creates gardens
0:36:52 > 0:36:56that climb vertically on the walls of inner city buildings.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00This one's on the Quaie Branly in Paris.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07But Patrick Blanc's work is now found all over the world,
0:37:07 > 0:37:12commissioned and displayed like paintings,
0:37:12 > 0:37:14neatly bridging the gap between gardens and art.
0:37:17 > 0:37:19I've come to see Patrick at his seemingly ordinary
0:37:19 > 0:37:21home in the south of Paris.
0:37:27 > 0:37:28Hello, Patrick.
0:37:28 > 0:37:29Hello.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31I'm Monty. Nice to meet you.
0:37:31 > 0:37:32Nice to meet you.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36'But inside it's anything but ordinary...'
0:37:37 > 0:37:40Ah, I can see this...
0:37:40 > 0:37:41bit at the end.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45My goodness.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48It's a kind of tropical forest at home!
0:37:48 > 0:37:53'..because Patrick has his own indoor vertical garden...'
0:37:53 > 0:37:57Oh, now it's a little bit more than three years old.
0:37:57 > 0:38:03'Or as he calls it, a "mur vegetal," a wall of plants.'
0:38:03 > 0:38:04It's three years old?
0:38:04 > 0:38:09Yes, and each plant has its own place
0:38:09 > 0:38:14because there are about 250 species...
0:38:14 > 0:38:16- 250 species here?- Yes!
0:38:16 > 0:38:17Oooh!
0:38:17 > 0:38:20Despite his growing fame as an artistic gardener,
0:38:20 > 0:38:24Patrick is first and foremost an academic botanist with
0:38:24 > 0:38:28an obsession for plants from tropical rainforests.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31And as rainforests account for over half the plant species
0:38:31 > 0:38:35on the planet, they're a rich source of material for his living wall.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39Tell me, technically, how do you fix them in?
0:38:39 > 0:38:40How, what are they growing in?
0:38:51 > 0:38:53So they don't need any nutrients?
0:38:53 > 0:38:55No. When you have, for instance, limestone cliffs,
0:38:55 > 0:38:58you have everywhere in the world
0:38:58 > 0:39:01and you see many species are growing as soon as
0:39:01 > 0:39:03there is some circulation of water.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06The only important thing is to choose the species, which in nature
0:39:06 > 0:39:11are always growing on vertical or very oblique surfaces.
0:39:13 > 0:39:15And how do you keep it watered?
0:39:15 > 0:39:19Oh, it's very easy. On the top you have a hose with some holes.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23- So to water, you have a hose and it drips down?- Yes.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25Inside this perfectly ordinary Parisian home,
0:39:25 > 0:39:30Patrick has created his own miniature ecosystem, complete
0:39:30 > 0:39:32with lizards,
0:39:33 > 0:39:34birds,
0:39:34 > 0:39:37and even an underfloor aquarium.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42Yet although this is quite unlike most gardens,
0:39:42 > 0:39:49the plants are still adapting and growing where it most suits them.
0:39:49 > 0:39:51In the case of a vertical garden,
0:39:51 > 0:39:56you see the plant can escape much more. You see this ficus,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59ficus villosa, for instance, which is here,
0:39:59 > 0:40:03I planted it here, I didn't know it wanted to climb,
0:40:03 > 0:40:05but now it is at the top
0:40:05 > 0:40:09and I think maybe it will be covering the ceiling.
0:40:09 > 0:40:14So, you see, with vertical gardens there are many more surprises
0:40:14 > 0:40:16because plants are totally free.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19Is this, do you think, other people have called this a work of art,
0:40:19 > 0:40:23do you think of it as your artwork?
0:40:23 > 0:40:27Or do you think of it as your garden? Or both?
0:40:27 > 0:40:29For me, it's my babies.
0:40:29 > 0:40:31Your babies!
0:40:34 > 0:40:38I like the exuberance of Patrick's living walls.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42This one is also in Paris, in the Rue de la Verrerie,
0:40:42 > 0:40:45and they've been much imitated around the world.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49Patrick himself is clearly not concerned
0:40:49 > 0:40:54whether they're art or not, but they challenge the nature of a garden
0:40:54 > 0:40:57and a lot of people enjoy them as living art.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06I'm now leaving Paris to head north, and the next gardener I'm going
0:41:06 > 0:41:09to meet has taken on a deeply serious subject -
0:41:09 > 0:41:11war and peace.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15His garden has been inspired by the countryside it's set in
0:41:15 > 0:41:17and its long and troubled history.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20This landscape of northern France
0:41:20 > 0:41:23will feel very familiar to British eyes.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25It does look similar in many ways,
0:41:25 > 0:41:30but the really big difference is that in this landscape,
0:41:30 > 0:41:33war raged within living memory
0:41:33 > 0:41:38and was the scene of horrendous fighting and terrible losses,
0:41:38 > 0:41:40and the marks of that are still here,
0:41:40 > 0:41:44both physically on the landscape itself, and in the community.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56The name of the garden that I'm heading towards
0:41:56 > 0:41:59is Sericourt, near the town of Arras.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05Sericourt is the creation of Yves Gosse de Gorre, who was born
0:42:05 > 0:42:09and brought up here, and identifies personally with
0:42:09 > 0:42:12the history of the surrounding battle-scarred landscape.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16This is what inspired him
0:42:16 > 0:42:18to create this large garden from scratch.
0:42:23 > 0:42:24THEY CONVERSE IN FRENCH
0:42:24 > 0:42:26The 11 acre garden is
0:42:26 > 0:42:31divided into many compartments, with the warrior garden at its heart.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42Des soldates?
0:42:43 > 0:42:46Ranks of fastigiate Irish yews,
0:42:46 > 0:42:49each trimmed to an individual height, stand at the ready.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55Just beyond them are crude faces clipped from cypress.
0:42:57 > 0:42:58Ah, la la!
0:43:10 > 0:43:13Yves loves the symbolism of plants.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16But the garden also includes direct images of the brutality that
0:43:16 > 0:43:19raged in this region just a few generations ago.
0:43:55 > 0:43:59I never thought I'd say this, that a hole could be a beautiful thing.
0:44:12 > 0:44:19Everything in this garden has a story or a symbol attached to it.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21Even though Yves started as a plantsman, he is,
0:45:21 > 0:45:23in a very French way,
0:45:23 > 0:45:27in love with the intellectual concepts that plants can express.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31But the garden's idiosyncrasies make it both very personal
0:45:31 > 0:45:33and yet accessible at every level.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38This is a big garden and it's full of ideas.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42On every corner you turn, there's something else going on.
0:45:42 > 0:45:43But what you feel like, it's a party,
0:45:43 > 0:45:47the door opens and as a visitor, "Welcome in, come and join us,"
0:45:47 > 0:45:51it's full of jostling, friendly humanity.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54And that's pretty good for a garden.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56Not many gardens achieve that.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59But I think what doesn't work is, there's no discrimination,
0:45:59 > 0:46:05and I think art has to leave out more than it includes.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08Here, the feeling is that nothing has been left out.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15The last of these modern gardens is in Normandy,
0:46:15 > 0:46:17a couple of hours' drive away.
0:46:17 > 0:46:21And here, all that I've learned about the French comes together in
0:46:21 > 0:46:26what I consider a hugely successful artistic work, and a lovely garden.
0:46:36 > 0:46:37This is Le Jardin Plume,
0:46:37 > 0:46:39"the feather garden,"
0:46:39 > 0:46:41made over the past 15 years.
0:46:45 > 0:46:50I first came here in winter, and it was very bleak and bare,
0:46:50 > 0:46:53but dramatic, and you could see what was going on,
0:46:53 > 0:46:55but you had to guess quite a lot.
0:46:55 > 0:47:00Now it's all evident and visible and, I guess, at its absolute best
0:47:00 > 0:47:02and it's just a joy.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04Everywhere you look, there's such interesting things going on.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08For example, the planting goes from the very conventional
0:47:08 > 0:47:11and recognisable, to really quite dramatically modern,
0:47:11 > 0:47:15using grasses in ways that a lot of people would say are weeds,
0:47:15 > 0:47:17and, "that's not the way you do it."
0:47:17 > 0:47:21But because it's done so slickly, and so well, it just feels sharp
0:47:21 > 0:47:25and utterly contemporary.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32The use of grasses is now highly fashionable,
0:47:32 > 0:47:36but Sylvie and Patrick Quibel, who made this garden from an open field,
0:47:36 > 0:47:39have established the perfect interplay between formal
0:47:39 > 0:47:43structure and the flowing sensuality of the content.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47It is like beautifully cut clothes
0:47:47 > 0:47:48that fit perfectly
0:47:48 > 0:47:52and yet allow the fabric to move and perform.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57You can walk right in amongst the planting,
0:47:59 > 0:48:02and you have this incredible movement.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06The wind just sort of riffles through and fingers it.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09The sound. The texture.
0:48:09 > 0:48:13The way that you look through something, to see everything else,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16just works superbly well.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19It's a really, really good example of how you work with a space,
0:48:19 > 0:48:25even if it's an unlikely one, and let things go within constraints.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28That makes something really special.
0:48:28 > 0:48:33The underlying design of this garden is based upon longstanding
0:48:33 > 0:48:36French formal gardening traditions.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39Like the gardens at Versailles and Vaux le Vicomte,
0:48:39 > 0:48:41but expressed in a very modern way.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45So, there are grandes allees,
0:48:45 > 0:48:49but they are created by mowing different heights of grass.
0:48:49 > 0:48:51The hedges are tightly clipped,
0:48:51 > 0:48:54but in flowing crests and waves.
0:48:54 > 0:48:59There is formal water, but cut as another square into the mown grass.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06I suppose the big question is -
0:49:06 > 0:49:09is this garden a work of art or is it just a beautiful garden?
0:49:11 > 0:49:15Certainly, it's full of very sculptural, artistic ideas
0:49:15 > 0:49:21and I think that this great block of green box is wonderful.
0:49:22 > 0:49:23Thrilling, even.
0:49:23 > 0:49:25Now, is it a box?
0:49:25 > 0:49:29Call it a hedge, call it anything you like - this is art for me.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33But the real way that this works is in the mind.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36It's got to be an idea, you've got to have
0:49:36 > 0:49:41the concept of art as a garden and this is where the French excel.
0:49:41 > 0:49:46They love concepts, they're very good at intellectualising.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49Taking an idea and turning it into a garden, taking a garden
0:49:49 > 0:49:53and turning it into an idea and playing with it,
0:49:53 > 0:49:56and I think the gardens that we've seen here in France show that they
0:49:56 > 0:50:00can do what the British, quite frankly, feel embarrassed about.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03We're clumsy, intellectually, compared to them.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09I think this garden is beautiful as a garden, as well as crossing
0:50:09 > 0:50:12the line to become a fascinating work of art.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16But did Patrick and Sylvie make it with that in mind?
0:51:45 > 0:51:46The ephemeral nature of gardening
0:51:46 > 0:51:49certainly does make it an elusive medium for art.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53But I think that this garden achieves it,
0:51:53 > 0:51:56through the combination of its deceptively simple
0:51:56 > 0:51:57and pared down layout
0:51:57 > 0:52:00and the way the planting's encouraged
0:52:00 > 0:52:01to be so transitory and loose.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18There is one final stop to make on this journey,
0:52:18 > 0:52:22and it is the garden most strongly associated with art in the world,
0:52:22 > 0:52:23let alone France.
0:52:27 > 0:52:29It's late summer
0:52:29 > 0:52:35and I've returned to Claude Monet's garden at Giverny, also in Normandy.
0:52:42 > 0:52:44This time,
0:52:44 > 0:52:48I'm going to see the water lilies in flower in his famous water garden.
0:52:54 > 0:52:56When I came here in spring,
0:52:56 > 0:52:59obviously the water lilies weren't out at all,
0:53:00 > 0:53:04and it feels wrong to be in France and not come back, to not see them.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09And there they are.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23By 1892, ten years after he moved here,
0:53:23 > 0:53:28Monet had made enough money from the sale of his paintings
0:53:28 > 0:53:32to purchase more land to make a large water garden,
0:53:32 > 0:53:36loosely inspired by the Japanese prints that he collected.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40For the next 30 years, he was to paint it obsessively,
0:53:40 > 0:53:42even as the guns
0:53:42 > 0:53:46of the Western front began to rumble within earshot of Giverny.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51It's funny, because I know what water lilies look like,
0:53:51 > 0:53:54but I confess that my initial reaction
0:53:54 > 0:53:56is one of being underwhelmed.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59It's somehow less than I expected.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04But actually that's unfair, it's unfair on the plants,
0:54:04 > 0:54:06it's unfair on Monet and the paintings,
0:54:06 > 0:54:08because it's to get it wrong.
0:54:08 > 0:54:10The water lilies themselves are not important.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13What Monet was painting was the light.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15That's what obsessed him.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18And light on water, which bounces and is reflected
0:54:18 > 0:54:20and comes off at angles and shimmers
0:54:20 > 0:54:23and sinks slightly beneath the water,
0:54:23 > 0:54:25is endlessly fascinating.
0:54:28 > 0:54:33There's no doubt that the pond, with its elusive light, entranced Monet
0:54:33 > 0:54:37as well as providing an escape from the loss of his wife,
0:54:37 > 0:54:40and the horror of the First World War.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59Monet gave these eight huge panels
0:54:59 > 0:55:04to the nation in 1918 as a celebration of the end of the war.
0:55:04 > 0:55:08But he couldn't part with them, or even stop working on them
0:55:08 > 0:55:12and they weren't installed here until after his death in 1926.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19The paintings increase our artistic appreciation of the garden,
0:55:19 > 0:55:23and visiting the garden enables us to appreciate
0:55:23 > 0:55:26and understand the paintings all the more.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33And Giverny seems to have given Monet an endless canvas
0:55:33 > 0:55:35which he could both plant
0:55:35 > 0:55:39and provide inspiration for his paintings.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45I think that where gardening is special,
0:55:45 > 0:55:49as opposed to all kinds of other ways of looking at the world,
0:55:49 > 0:55:53is that the relationship of the gardener with the land is intimate.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56It's something that is very deep
0:55:56 > 0:56:00and if it taps something inside you, then it can produce great art.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06And what makes French artistic gardens so particular
0:56:06 > 0:56:12is the ease with which they combine intellectual abstract concepts
0:56:12 > 0:56:14with an earthy love of plants.
0:56:20 > 0:56:25'In this series, I've learned so much about France and its gardens,
0:56:25 > 0:56:30'from how the historic grandeur of Versailles was created...'
0:56:30 > 0:56:31Wow!
0:56:31 > 0:56:34'..to the way that the medieval monastic tradition makes
0:56:34 > 0:56:36'a modern kitchen garden.'
0:56:36 > 0:56:38I hope you like the vegetables.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40I love vegetables.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43'From the evolving charm of Courances,
0:56:43 > 0:56:45'to the Michelin-starred restaurant producing
0:56:45 > 0:56:48'all its own organic produce.'
0:56:49 > 0:56:52Cor, blimey, this is a muscular tomato!
0:56:52 > 0:56:57'And of course, the influential formal potagers at Villandry.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00'And I've seen gardens that set the standard for gardens
0:57:00 > 0:57:02'of their type right across the world.'
0:57:03 > 0:57:06As I've travelled round France, I've learned that they still
0:57:06 > 0:57:11respect order, formality and doing things in the correct manner.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15But they also take delight in abstract ideas
0:57:15 > 0:57:17and intellectual concepts.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22And the French have a deeply romantic streak,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25running from Josephine's Malmaison,
0:57:25 > 0:57:31to the crazy but wonderful modern extravaganza of Champ de Bataille.
0:57:31 > 0:57:32Amazing!
0:57:34 > 0:57:38And above all, their love of style, flair,
0:57:38 > 0:57:43in their gardens, as in every aspect of life.
0:57:49 > 0:57:54When I came to France as a teenager I was pretty sure what I wanted.
0:57:54 > 0:57:56I wanted light, I wanted art,
0:57:56 > 0:57:59I wanted the sort of creative impulse
0:57:59 > 0:58:01that seemed to come from the south.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05Obviously, now I've got older, a lot of those things have gone.
0:58:05 > 0:58:06Some of them have matured and changed,
0:58:06 > 0:58:08life's got complicated.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11But the more I visit gardens, and travel,
0:58:11 > 0:58:13it's clear that two things happen.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16One, you start to piece your past together
0:58:16 > 0:58:19by this new and changing present.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23As you get older, things make sense, and through seeing gardens,
0:58:23 > 0:58:27it's the medium with which I can measure out my world.
0:58:27 > 0:58:30And also, the more that you learn about a culture
0:58:30 > 0:58:31and a civilisation and a people
0:58:31 > 0:58:33through the way that they make gardens,
0:58:33 > 0:58:35the more that you learn about yourself.
0:58:56 > 0:58:58Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd