Trouble at the Tuileries

I have just written an article for Gardens and People on the extraordinary 1990 proposals by Bernard Lassus to reinvent the Jardin des Tuileries. They were an entry in a state-run competition and, sadly, a less adventurous plan by Louis Benech and Pascal Cribier was chosen for implementation. My article is part of a series [...]

Read Full Post »

Cool plants for hot days

The gardens of the Hotel Biron are currently a sea of creamy hydrangeas and soft green foliage. A few weeks ago I posted on the lush roses and paeonies that filled the grounds in June. It appeared to be the peak of the summer. But now everywhere is a mass of lacecaps and mopheads, all [...]

Read Full Post »

The Emperor’s own park

The Bois de Boulogne, once an ancient oak forest, was for centuries a royal hunting ground. In the 1850s, it became the first of many public parks created by the Emperor Napoleon III. His team of engineers, designers and horticulturalists produced what they saw as an English-style landscape, with sinuous paths, rock features, clumps of [...]

Read Full Post »

C’est pour offrir?

One of the pleasurable things about living in Paris is the fleuristes – the many flower shops with their beautiful displays of plants and cut flowers. This one is Shivani on boulevard Haussmann in the 8th arrondissement. It currently has displays of hydrangeas, tree ferns, lavender, philodendron and orchids, all carefully set out on the [...]

Read Full Post »

Dan Kiley at La Défense

This week I went to see Dan Kiley‘s landcape design at La Défense, the business district to the west of Paris. Kiley is one of my favourite landscape architects. I spent a morning with him in his Vermont home not long before he died, to learn more about his work at the Lincoln Center in [...]

Read Full Post »