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.

Designed in 1853-54 by the artist Minel, 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 (Photo 1), which is now used as a museum and gallery. The evidence that it was once a good formal garden still remains. The double stairs with side walls of clipped hornbeam which lead grandly down, have an Italianate air. They are aligned with an obelisque which provides a short vista from the hôtel (Photo 3). 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 (Photo 2) 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 with carefully considered municipal planting, which is usually done so well in France, this public garden cleverly combines a wealth of mature features and styles generally found on larger estates.

Glossary