| Where'er you walk cool gales shall fan the glade; Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade; Wher'er you tread, the blushing flow'rs shall rise, And all things flourish where you turn your eyes. Alexander Pope (1688-1744) |
Le Vasterival
Le Vasterival, Jardin Botanique de France, is a garden for all seasons at Sainte-Marguerite-Sur-Mer in Normandy, and it is particularly suited to visiting in spring.
In 1957 Princess Sturdza, a talented Norwegian, started to create this magnificent garden in a natural style covering 7 hectares of acid soil and a kilometre from the sea. Today it is one of the finest in France, with a huge range of plants which thrive to perfection in its composted earth.
Its informal design with paths, woodlands, glades and immaculate grass walks leading temptingly in all directions, contains a richness of flora in a variety of settings all the year round.
Penelope Hobhouse and Patrick Taylor, in their book The Gardens of Europe, state "Few gardens elicit superlatives as easily as Le Vasterival. It sets standards that all gardeners should aim at but few will attain".