Holiday Idea: Beautiful gardens of Normandy
Normandy offers acres of beautiful gardens near wonderful restaurants, as Garden Editor Clare Foster discovered on a whistle-stop driving tour with a friend
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The aim was to take my friend's BMW convertible and cruise round Normandy, roof down, a Thelma and Louise-style getaway from the children. But the forecast was rain, so we took the Volvo onto the Eurotunnel Le Shuttle instead. Forget Brexit, hopping across to Europe this way is quick and usually hassle-free, especially mid-week; hours after leaving Dover we were feasting on French food and discussing our schedule of garden visits over the next three days. We decided to be thankful for the Volvo's satnav.
The first night was spent at the Manoir de Surville, a recently opened 11-bedroom hotel in a small village south-west of Rouen, popular with young Parisians who come here to unwind, and one of Alastair Sawday's recommendations in the region. Having settled ourselves into the smart and comfortable rooms, we set off for the nearby L'Hostellerie d'Acquigny at the suggestion of the hotel's owner Camille Oeyen. This unassuming village restaurant was an unexpected bonus. Sitting in the garden under an olive tree, we had the most amazing meal: langoustines, foie gras and tuna tartare followed by the best French cheese. We awarded it our own Michelin star.
From Surville, it was only a 45-minute drive to Monet's garden at Giverny (giverny.org). We had planned to spend the whole day there, but at another recommendation of the well-connected hotelier, we decided to squeeze in one more garden on the way. Extraordinary Château du Champ de Bataille (lechateauduchampdebataille.com) was a revelation. Created by its interior-designer owner Jacques Garcia over the past 25 years, it is an elaborate but marvellous baroque pastiche, with miles of topiary, intriguing garden rooms and a lake so long it took us 20 minutes to reach the end.
It set the bar for the next few days, and we went on to see five other excellent gardens, meandering through traffic-free Normandy lanes to find gems hidden away at the end of them. Each garden was completely different from the last: from the touristy but charming Giverny to the tranquil meadow landscape of Jardin Plume (lejardinplume.com); from the plant-filled town garden Agapanthe (jardin-agapanthe.fr) to the enchanted woodland glades of Jardin le Vasterival, near Dieppe (vasterival.fr).
A highlight of the trip was a night at eighteenth-century Château de Bonnemare (also available to book through Sawday's), where the owners have restored five elegant rooms as chambres d'hôtes. My room, the Chambre de Parade, with its velvet-swagged four-poster bed, chandeliers and eighteenth-century murals, was like a scene from Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
Although we covered over 400 miles through Haute-Normandie and the Seine-Maritime, each place was never more than an hour's drive from the previous destination, so the journey was divided into bite-size chunks. There are so many lovely gardens in this area that we only touched the surface, and vowed to return for another dash over the Channel to see more next year
Ways and means
Clare Foster travelled as a guest of Sawday's (sawdays.co.uk), which offers B&B accommodation in Normandy, from guest houses to chateaux, from ¤120 a night. All the gardens mentioned are open to the public from March to November (Vasterival for groups by appointment only). A Short Stay Saver ticket on Eurotunnel (eurotunnel.com) costs from £59 for return within five days.
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