Anglo-chinois gardens
It can be hard to grasp the shift in France from the great classical, geometric gardens of Le Nôtre and his followers to the so-called anglo-chinois style which swept the … Continue reading
Grands Moulins revisited
Three years ago I wrote rather disparagingly about the jardins des Grands Moulins – Abbé Pierre, in Paris’s 13th arrondissement. It is a new, self-proclaimed sustainable park, and I wondered … Continue reading
Historic restoration as mille-feuille
It may be the only time that historic garden conservation has been compared to a flaky French pastry. But use of the term mille-feuille was not the only unusual thing … Continue reading
The most popular sites in the world
Google has just produced a ‘heatmap‘ of the places people most like to visit. It’s a fascinating if not entirely reliable snapshot of the world’s most popular sites, based on … Continue reading
How naughty we have been
I am delighted to have joined the rosta of writers at ThinkinGardens, a British website eager to encourage serious, stimulating and critical writing about designed landscapes. My first piece is Worthy … Continue reading
Paris post-script
My visit to Paris this summer revealed some odd goings-on at the venerable parc Monceau, in the heart of the city. Originally created in the 18th century as a flamboyant … Continue reading
A car wreck of a park?
Parc André Citroën in the southwest of Paris was created just twenty years ago, on the site of an old car factory. The only park in the capital with frontage … Continue reading
Field Trip
Posts from landscapelover now feature on Google’s new app Field Trip. This seems to me a nifty concept that allows information about local places to pop up on your phone … Continue reading
Celebrating Dan Kiley
As regular readers will know, I am a great fan of the work of the US designer Dan Kiley. His spare, modern parks and gardens arguably made him the finest … Continue reading
Eco-grazing in Paris
Or éco-pâturage à Paris, in the more elegant French description. I really want this to work. As a pilot scheme, the Paris parks department has installed four sheep in the … Continue reading
Sculpture in the garden
The splendid website ThinkinGardens hosted a discussion a while ago on sculpture in the garden. One commenter argued that a garden setting can enhance a sculpture, but that she had … Continue reading
Gardens of Power and Passion
I wrote here about the fascinating experience of working on a television history of French gardens, presented by Monty Don. The programme, called Gardens of Power and Passion, will air this … Continue reading
Monty Don’s French Gardens
One of my more exciting projects over the past few months has been providing consultancy advice to a forthcoming BBC TV programme on the history of French gardens, presented by … Continue reading
A mysterious French designer…
Search the internet for Elie Lainé and you’ll readily find that he was a once-celebrated nineteenth century French landscape designer. You’ll learn that he worked on big projects in at … Continue reading
Monumental art in Paris
Every year Paris stages Monumenta, a temporary installation by a single artist in the vast iron and glass spaces of its Grand Palais. I remember describing last year’s work, produced … Continue reading
Wildlife and gardens
Having lived on three continents, I am increasingly struck by the similarities and connections between gardens in seemingly very disparate countries. What confirms my location is not the plants or … Continue reading
All the world’s a stage…
The théâtre de verdure du jardin Shakespeare is a delightful open air theatre in the Bois de Boulogne, to the west of Paris. Last month we saw Macbeth there in a … Continue reading
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