| Delight comes from plants and springs and gardens and gentle winds and flowers and the song of birds. Libanios (314-393) |
Parc de l'Hôtel Le Poupinel
The town of Coutances is the religious and judiciary capital of Cotentin in the region of Basse-Normandie. As in many parts of France, in the centre of the town is the Jardin des Plantes. But this is not just any Jardin des Plantes.
on the site of the old gardens of the 17th-century Hôtel le Poupinel, this garden was given to the town by its last owner, Jean-Jaques Quesnel de la Morinière, in 1850. This Normandy garden is as celebrated as its contemporary in Paris, Le Parc Monceau. It presents a harmonious compromise between the English style and the rectilinear allées charactaristic of French gardens. Banks of flowers and well-kept lawns alternate with groups of ornamental trees that originate in other parts of the world.
The garden is laid out on a slope below the old hôtel, which is now used as a museum and gallery. The evidence that it was once a good formal garden still remains. The double stairs which lead grandly down, have an Italianate air, with side walls of clipped hornbeam. They are aligned with an obelisque which provides a short vista from the hôtel. Old statues share the scene with modern whimsical, colourful mosaiculture portrayals of contemporary cartoon characters. A hornbeam labyrinthe on a mound brings to mind thoughts of medieval gardens, and it provides a good view from the top.
Over all this, a wonderful canopy of mature rare trees includes a monkey puzzle, blue and Lebanese cedars, weeping ash, wing nut, tulip tree, holm oak, magnolia, New Zealand beech, giant redwood, purple beech, Japonese cryptomeria, maidenhair tree and a golden rain tree from India.
On a relatively small site, this garden cleverly combines a wealth of mature features and styles generally found on larger estates with carefully considered municipal planting which is usually done so well in France.