Jardin la francaise
March 22, 2012 5:45 PM   Subscribe

The Château de Marqueyssac is a 17th century chateau and gardens located at Vézac, in France. The chateau was built at the end of the 17th century on cliffs overlooking the Dordogne Valley. The original garden à la française featured terraces, alleys, and a kitchen garden surrounding the chateau. In the 1860s, the new owner, began to plant thousands of boxwood trees - today there are over 150,000 - and had them carved in fantastic shapes, many in groups of rounded shapes like flocks of sheep.

In the second half 20th century the house was not frequented occupied, and the gardens were not well maintained. Beginning in 1996, a new owner restored the gardens to their old character, and added some new features. The gardens were opened to the public in 1996.
posted by growabrain (12 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
Why sheep?
posted by TwelveTwo at 5:48 PM on March 22, 2012


I suppose because sheep are (a) bucolic, and (b) more like rounded shapes than wildebeests or giant squid.
posted by SPrintF at 6:21 PM on March 22, 2012


Having snarked that, the thing about mannered gardens like this is that they are less a celebration of natural forms, but an exploration of three-dimensional design. Walking through such a garden is not an exploration of the world, but an exploration of the mind of the landscaper, and the intersection of Art and Architecture.

Whether you like this sort of thing or not, depends less upon how much you like plants, than how closely you follow the landscapers narrative.
posted by SPrintF at 6:25 PM on March 22, 2012


So, he had sheep on the mind.
posted by TwelveTwo at 6:48 PM on March 22, 2012


Just because you are good at garden design does not mean that you are good at web design, or hiring good web designers.

Amen.

flickr search on "Marquesyssac".
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:04 PM on March 22, 2012 [2 favorites]


Very keen! Too bad that the HDR applied to those pictures in the 1996 link make everything look computer generated, as if everything is glowing with an unnatural light. Eck.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:08 PM on March 22, 2012


This paragraph paints a beautiful picture.
posted by mynews at 10:14 PM on March 22, 2012


I'd like to spend a day wandering around there. I'd see the verdant, lush surroundings, the amazing sculpted boxwoods, the cool old buildings. I'd like to drink wine from a boda bag sitting amongst the stone heads.

Thanks for the post, growabrain.
posted by wallabear at 11:11 PM on March 22, 2012


If you look at a bigger image you can see that they look like a flock of big green sheep closely clustered together.
posted by twoleftfeet at 12:47 AM on March 23, 2012


Are we sure its sheep and not a lower intestine ?
posted by duffers5000 at 1:25 AM on March 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


Why sheep?

Fashion — the affectation of peasant tropes like this one, for example, was an in with the in crowd thing at the time.
posted by Wolof at 1:29 AM on March 23, 2012


neat!
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:06 PM on March 23, 2012


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