A French-style garden at the Château de Maintenon
A new French-style garden at the Château de Maintenon
To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the birth of Le Nôtre, King Louis XIV’s famous gardener, the Eure-et-Loir Departmental Council has created a new French-style garden at the Château de Maintenon.
In 1676, on the orders of King Louis XIV, Le Nôtre was sent to Maintenon to draw up plans for the château grounds.
Based on original plans dating from 1686 found in the Robert de Cotte collection at the National Library of France, the French-style gardens at the Château de Maintenon have been fully restored in keeping with the spirit of Le Nôtre’s original creation, with beautiful sweeping lines from the château to the aqueduct.
André Le Nôtre’s plans for Maintenon involved digging a canal that ran under the aqueduct, lined with two avenues planted with trees, one of which is named after him. The other has been given the name Racine in memory of the famous dramatist who worked on his tragedies “Esther” and “Athalie” at Maintenon. Le Nôtre designed a formal garden or parterre surrounded by water on the right and a decorative triangular parterre de broderie.
The gardener chosen to oversee this ambitious restoration project was Patrick Pottier, master gardener at the Château du Champ-de-Bataille, owned by famous interior designer Jacques Garcia.
The work on the parterre was carried out entirely by the Parks Department of the Eure-et-Loir Departmental Council, which has kept the garden decorated with 12,000 boxwood plants to form the edging, 65 tree roses, 58 topiaries and 60 shaped yews.
The garden offers up new delights every season – in spring, 15,000 Violet Sky tulips burst into colour to herald the new season, and in summer 2,000 pink impatiens and 2,000 blue and white sage plants create a sumptuous carpet.
New for 2014: Illuminations light up the French-style garden at the Château de Maintenon
The French-style garden and aqueduct can now be admired after dark with striking illuminations accompanied by a musical soundtrack, entirely funded by generous corporate donations from Crédit Agricole, Citéos, SogéaCentre, Vinci and Bull and supported by the “Eure-et-Loir Heritage” endowment fund.
These illuminations have been carefully planned and produced using LED lighting:
Illumination of the avenues and main intersections: uniform oblique lighting from 154 ground projectors in the avenues.
Illumination of the topiaries: 291 projectors, 3 or 4 per topiary depending on the geometric design.
Illumination of the moat: 16 projectors (8 on each side).
Illumination of the aqueduct: 14 projectors, 11 under water.
Sound system piped through 27 speakers in the garden.
In summer the illuminated garden is open to visitors after dark.
To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the birth of Le Nôtre, King Louis XIV’s famous gardener, the Eure-et-Loir Departmental Council has created a new French-style garden at the Château de Maintenon.
In 1676, on the orders of King Louis XIV, Le Nôtre was sent to Maintenon to draw up plans for the château grounds. Based on original plans dating from 1686 found in the Robert de Cotte collection at the National Library of France, the French-style gardens at the Château de Maintenon have been fully restored in keeping with the spirit of Le Nôtre’s original creation, with beautiful sweeping lines from the château to the aqueduct.
André Le Nôtre’s plans for Maintenon involved digging a canal that ran under the aqueduct, lined with two avenues planted with trees, one of which is named after him. The other has been given the name Racine in memory of the famous dramatist who worked on his tragedies “Esther” and “Athalie” at Maintenon. Le Nôtre designed a formal garden or parterre surrounded by water on the right and a decorative triangular parterre de broderie.
The gardener chosen to oversee this ambitious restoration project was Patrick Pottier, master gardener at the Château du Champ-de-Bataille, owned by famous interior designer Jacques Garcia. The work on the parterre was carried out entirely by the Parks Department of the Eure-et-Loir Departmental Council, which has kept the garden decorated with 12,000 boxwood plants to form the edging, 65 tree roses, 58 topiaries and 60 shaped yews.
The garden offers up new delights every season – in spring, 15,000 Violet Sky tulips burst into colour to herald the new season, and in summer 2,000 pink impatiens and 2,000 blue and white sage plants create a sumptuous carpet.
New for 2015 : Illuminations light up the French-style garden at the Château de Maintenon. The French-style garden and aqueduct can now be admired after dark with striking illuminations, entirely funded by generous corporate donations from Crédit Agricole, Citéos, SogéaCentre, Vinci and Bull and supported by the “Eure-et-Loir Heritage” endowment fund.
These illuminations have been carefully planned and produced using LED lighting: Illumination of the avenues and main intersections : uniform oblique lighting from 154 ground projectors in the avenues. Illumination of the topiaries: 291 projectors, 3 or 4 per topiary depending on the geometric design. Illumination of the moat: 16 projectors (8 on each side).Illumination of the aqueduct : 14 projectors, 11 under water.