Discover 22 private gardens

The secrets of France's luxuriant Cotentin peninsula

n°1 Le Jardin du Bourg

Anneville-en-Saire

A fabulous collection of Plants from Australasia

All summer long Michel Peltier shares his passion for his collection of plants from all over the world but mainly the southern hemisphere.  With more than 730 plants, and incredibly the name of each one on the tip of his tongue, it is a plant lovers’ paradise.

n°2 Le Jardin Chou

Tourlaville

An exquisite setting in the middle of town

From flower bed to vegetable patch to orchard, all the needs of a town garden beautifully orchestrated and met.  At the foot of 4 enormous eucalyptus trees, exuberant flowerbeds consisting of perennials, old roses and a variety of shrubs compete with each other for the pleasure of your senses.

n°3 Le 22 de La Fournellerie

Hardinvast

A celebration of the profusion of nature

The house is surrounded by flowerbeds crammed with perennials, annuals and shrubs which Pierre Grandin has collected and planted since 1978. Abundant hydrangeas, elegantly arched dieramas flourish among a generous selection of ground covers which encircle the trees and shrubs in the garden…

n°4 La Ferme des Roches

Martinvast

A quiet retreat just out of town

In 1998 Caroline St Clair fell for this place and started planting in the fields around the house.

n°5 La Blanche Maison

Urville-Nacqueville

418 varieties of hydrangeas in a coastal environment

On the north side, above and behind the magnificent old stone house,  the Cotentin annexe of Corinne Mallet’s prestigious Shamrock Collection (at  Varengeville-sur-Mer (Seine-Maritime) proffers 463 hydrangeas (418 different varieties) flourishing on the side of a steep hill with a  wonderful view of the sea.

n°6 Les Cuillers de Merquetot

Jobourg

With Alderney as a backdrop, a young garden with plenty of promise

This is a newish garden, full of flowers and at the mercy of the coastal winds sweeping the tip of the Hague Peninsular.  It has a remarkable view of Alderney over the sea where the strongest currents in Europe race past the lighthouse at Goury.

n°7 Le Clos des Rosiers

Hardinvast

An orgy of roses

From the intense blue flowers of the Rhododendron augustinii at the end of April to the burning embers of the spectacular Japanese maples in autumn, this opulent garden contains interest all year long.

n°8 Le Jardin de Clairbois

Brix

A fascinating collection of rhododendrons and hydrangeas in a wilderness of trees

An immense collection of rhododendrons started in 1964 by the parents of plantsman   Christophe Egon.  Now lovingly cared for and added to by Christophe and Pascale.  Incidentally, you can browse a huge variety of plants for sale  from their greenhouses and get expert advice on their planting preferences and aftercare from the Egons who are happy to share their  extensive knowledge with their visitors.

n°9 Le Moulin de Rochemont

Ruffosses

Lush exoticism at the source of "The Gloire"

It would be impossible to pass by this garden right in the middle of the Norman Bocage, on the edge of an immense forest. without being surprised by the exotic nature of its plants -Banana trees, cordylines, araucarias, palms, bamboos and many irresistible examples of topiary that have been painstakingly fashioned over the years.

n°10 La Ferme de la Gervaiserie

Quettehou

Profusion and diversity accompanying a watercourse

This garden is carefully designed around the central element:  a stylised staircase of water – a stream flowing through a succession of raised pools.

n°11 Le Jardin du Marais

Audouville-la Hubert

An enchanting patchwork of tasteful changing scenes 

Over the years, Odile and Paul Beugin have conquered, little by little, the surface of their vast property in the heart of the wetlands natural park.  One by one they have added a series of separate gardens around the superb stone dwelling, each following the other in the manner of a game of dominos.

n°12 La Bizerie

Saint-Maurice-en-Cotentin

From different climes

Deep in the countryside and down a wide north facing valley, Jerome Goutier, horticultural journalist and author, has been creating his garden since 1988. From the outset he favoured evergreens from the southern hemisphere, which over 22 years have become handsome specimens: Nothofagus, Maytenus, Eucryphia, eucalyptus…

n°13 La Poterie

Lithaire

Shop window for unique garden pottery and stoneware

This garden started in 1999 by Isabelle and Thierry is added to every year by rarities the owners find amongst their plantsmen friends’ collections. Quite strict plantings around the house become more and more effusive on the other side of a riotous curtain of purple phormiums, and finishes by melting into the surrounding hedges of the property.

n°14 Le Presbytère de Brucheville

Brucheville

The exuberance of a cottage garden

Still in its early years, this garden started in 2004 happily juxtaposes its three separate spaces, where old roses and hydrangeas rule the waves.

n°15 Le Jardin du Château Bellenau

Saint-Côme-du-Mont

Somewhere between romanticism and modernism - the creation of a dreamer and botanist of the 19th Century

A young student of medicine, Pierre-Joseph La Fosse (1828-1897), started this endeavour at the age of 22, and spent the rest of his life adding to it. Following the windings of the Douve river he created a network of canals and lakes, scattered with islands accessible by either boat or footbridges and gangways.

n°16 Sept Chênes

Lessay

Roses taking over an orchard

Planted since 2002, this garden full of potential, half field, half orchard is host to a growing collection of old roses. Allow yourself to be amazed by the runaway charms of the amazing Gallicas, by the delicacy of the multiflora and moschata hybrids, and by the sheer exuberance of the climbers and ramblers which are slowly but surely colonising the fruit trees.

n°17 Le Haut-Dy

Créances

A bewitching succession of different garden settings 

A dip into an exotic world is what visitors are offered behind the house where, protected by old stone walls, Hélène and Pierre Lefillastre have acclimatised palms, cestrums, abutilons and Citrus x paradisi  (grapefruit)  in the open ground.

n°18 Toucan fleuri

Montchaton

Poetic heaven on earth

An amusing atmosphere of Steptoe and Son is the feeling you get when you walk round the garden, terraced on several different levels around the house.  Flower power rules - even in the vegetable patch and round a little pool decorated with superb colourful pottery, themselves bursting with annuals.

n°19 Le Jardin des 5 Sens

Teurthéville-Bocage

Nature in its glory but a garden thats lived in

Nestling in a calm hamlet far from the bustle of road traffic, the 5 sense garden demonstrates an excellent use of space.

n°20 L'Orail

Le Mesnil-Villeman

A garden that reminds us of the good old days

Here we have a garden in the middle of the countryside which exhales a perfume of times gone by with a profusion of well loved flowers, a chequerboard vegetable garden, and a mass of elegant and unusual topiaries – the speciality of the master of the house, Jean Faucon, who has even achieved a (small) copy of the Eiffel tower.

n°21 Jardin Flore et Sens

Coutances

A considerable horticultural selection

Here we find a vast collection of plants in the heart of Coutances brought together in an ideal site, a valley which follows a small river which in turn flows into a lake of 1900 m²...

n°22 La Deurie

La Mouche

A huge botanical collection

On more than 5 acres, and since 2005, Marie-Claude Corbin has put together a unique collection of rare trees and bushes, old roses, specimen perennials; an arboretum, ‘spring’ and ‘autumn’ borders, a lush mixed border in the English Style, a prolific vegetable garden.