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The Calvados region of northern France has a varied terrain that stretches from the rugged Cotentin Peninsula through the bocage, a rolling landscape of dense hedgerows and wooded valleys to the area’s celebrated and plentiful cider orchards. Again, we have selected a group of fine gardens of great contrast where we will meet owners and gardeners to learn about plants and design from a uniquely French perspective. Our hotel, the four-star Château La Chenevière close to Bayeux, is an elegant eighteenth century manoir (one of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World group), set in its own fine grounds with remnant champion trees of its once-famous arboretum. La Chenevière is run to the highest standards with elegant and exquisitely-furnished rooms and a restaurant serving some of Normandy’s most delectable gastronomic delights.
Day 1: Monday, 8th September
Depart by Eurostar from London, St Pancras 09.17 to arrive at Paris Gare du Nord, at 12.47. (Please arrange your own lunch on the train). David Wheeler and Maite Delmas will meet you at the station and together we will then drive to the heart of Calvados to Château Boutemont. When Achille Duchêne was asked to design these gardens at the beginning of the twentieth century, he was opposed to the still fashionable (in France) English Landscape style and thus returned to a more formal French garden style that has been embellished with love and care by the current owners, M and Mme Armand Sarfati. We have been invited to a refreshing drink on the terrace before continuing the journey into Calvados to Hotel La Chenevière for a warm welcome and an evening meal with selected wines. This will be your comfortable and sumptuous base for the duration of the tour.
Day 2: Tuesday, 9th September
Château Vendeuvre is the home of the nineth Count of Vendeuvre and has a remarkable garden filled with magical surprises: water automata, a collection of dog kennels, a shell grotto and other follies and topiary garden. Following lunch we travel to Château Canon for a traditional organic cider tasting and a visit to its flower-filled Chartreuses, a sequence of thirteen interlocking colour-themed walled gardens.
Day 3: Wednesday, 10th September
Jérome Goutier describes himself as a photojournalist and author who has written a series of guides to the gardens of his native Cotentin Peninsula. We start with a visit to his own private garden that specialises in southern-hemisphere plants. We then journey down the peninsula to the small town of Coutances for some free time for lunch and to wander in the bizarre municipal park, the Jardin des Plantes de Coutances, extravagantly planted with an amazing assortment of of bright flowers. Not far away is the Musée Manoir de Saussey, housing an array of ceramic artifacts and an exceptional glass collection, with examples from ancient Egypt to the nineteenth-century in galleries surrounding a beautifully intimate flower garden. On oiur return to the hotel we visit the magical, exquisite and imaginatively planted Les Jardins de Castillon-Plantbessin.
Day 4: Thursday, 11th September
Not far from the hotel, within sight of the Gold Beach, site of the 1944 Normandy Landings, Château de Brecy, a rare delight, a unique seventeenth-century formal garden on a manageable scale, described by former owner, Jacques de Lacretelle as having “The finery of an Italian princess thrown over the shoulders of a little Normandy peasant girl” It now belongs to HORTUS founder members, Didier & Barbara Wirth who have heroically and unstintingly restored both its architectural and horticultural fabric to the highest level of perfection.
Day 5: Friday, 12th September
Driving back towards Paris, we make our own grande finale at Château du Champ de Bataille, where designer Jacques Garcia has revived a grand estate situated on the site of Normandy’s tenth-century battle for independence. He has succeeded in giving extraordinarily modern overtones to the classic French formal garden on a very large scale. Lunch is included in the velvet-clad tearooms before leaving plenty of time to return to Paris Gare du Nord for a 17.58 Eurostar back to London, arriving at St. Pancras at 19.39.
Selected reading:
The Gardens of Briécy: A Lasting Landscape by Eric T. Haskell
Useful guides:
Michelin Green Guide: Normandy
A Traveller's Guide to D-Day and the Battle for Normandy by Carl Shileto and Mike Tolhurst
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| The Calvados region of northern France has a varied terrain that stretches from the rugged Cotentin Peninsula through the bocage, a rolling landscape of dense hedgerows and wooded valleys to the area’s celebrated and plentiful cider orchards. Again, we have selected a group of fine gardens of great contrast where we will meet owners and gardeners to learn about plants and design from a uniquely French perspective. Our hotel, the four-star Château La Chenevière close to Bayeux, is an elegant eighteenth century manoir (one of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World group), set in its own fine grounds with remnant champion trees of its once-famous arboretum. La Chenevière is run to the highest standards with elegant and exquisitely-furnished rooms and a restaurant serving some of Normandy’s most delectable gastronomic delights. |
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Day 1: Monday, 8th September
Depart by Eurostar from London, St Pancras 09.17 to arrive at Paris Gare du Nord, at 12.47. (Please arrange your own lunch on the train). David Wheeler and Maite Delmas will meet you at the station and together we will then drive to the heart of Calvados to Château Boutemont. When Achille Duchêne was asked to design these gardens at the beginning of the twentieth century, he was opposed to the still fashionable (in France) English Landscape style and thus returned to a more formal French garden style that has been embellished with love and care by the current owners, M and Mme Armand Sarfati. We have been invited to a refreshing drink on the terrace before continuing the journey into Calvados to Hotel La Chenevière for a warm welcome and an evening meal with selected wines. This will be your comfortable and sumptuous base for the duration of the tour. |
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Day 2: Tuesday, 9th September
Château Vendeuvre is the home of the nineth Count of Vendeuvre and has a remarkable garden filled with magical surprises: water automata, a collection of dog kennels, a shell grotto and other follies and topiary garden. Following lunch we travel to Château Canon for a traditional organic cider tasting and a visit to its flower-filled Chartreuses, a sequence of thirteen interlocking colour-themed walled gardens. |
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Day 3: Wednesday, 10th September
Jérome Goutier describes himself as a photojournalist and author who has written a series of guides to the gardens of his native Cotentin Peninsula. We start with a visit to his own private garden that specialises in southern-hemisphere plants. We then journey down the peninsula to the small town of Coutances for some free time for lunch and to wander in the bizarre municipal park, the Jardin des Plantes de Coutances, extravagantly planted with an amazing assortment of of bright flowers. Not far away is the Musée Manoir de Saussey, housing an array of ceramic artifacts and an exceptional glass collection, with examples from ancient Egypt to the nineteenth-century in galleries surrounding a beautifully intimate flower garden. On oiur return to the hotel we visit the magical, exquisite and imaginatively planted Les Jardins de Castillon-Plantbessin. |
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Day 4: Thursday, 11th September
Not far from the hotel, within sight of the Gold Beach, site of the 1944 Normandy Landings, Château de Brecy, a rare delight, a unique seventeenth-century formal garden on a manageable scale, described by former owner, Jacques de Lacretelle as having “The finery of an Italian princess thrown over the shoulders of a little Normandy peasant girl” It now belongs to HORTUS founder members, Didier & Barbara Wirth who have heroically and unstintingly restored both its architectural and horticultural fabric to the highest level of perfection. |
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Day 5: Friday, 12th September
Driving back towards Paris, we make our own grande finale at Château du Champ de Bataille, where designer Jacques Garcia has revived a grand estate situated on the site of Normandy’s tenth-century battle for independence. He has succeeded in giving extraordinarily modern overtones to the classic French formal garden on a very large scale. Lunch is included in the velvet-clad tearooms before leaving plenty of time to return to Paris Gare du Nord for a 17.58 Eurostar back to London, arriving at St. Pancras at 19.39. |
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Selected reading:
The Gardens of Briécy: A Lasting Landscape by Eric T. Haskell
Useful guides:
Michelin Green Guide: Normandy
A Traveller's Guide to D-Day and the Battle for Normandy by Carl Shileto and Mike Tolhurst |
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How much & what's included:
The price per person: £2890.00
A Single supplement of £500.00 is levied by the hotel.
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The price includes: four nights dinner, bed & breakfast accommodation at Château La Chenevière three lunches, plus return Eurostar train tickets from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord. Please note that if you wish to join the tour in Paris we will deduct £75.00 per person from the tour price.
In accordance with “The Package Travel, Package Tours Regulations 1992” all passengers booking with Boxwood Tours Limited are fully Insured for the initial deposit and subsequently the balance of all monies paid to us, including repatriation if required, arising from the cancellation or curtailment of your travel arrangements due to the insolvency of Boxwood Tours Limited.
A certificate detailing this cover will be given to each and every passenger as evidence of cover. Please ensure that you have been given the appropriate certificate(s) at the time of booking.
This insurance has been arranged by Towergate Chapman Stevens through HCC International Insurance Company PLC.
Online Booking
To make a reservation online click here: BOXWOOD TOURS ONLINE |
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Contact
Boxwood Tours,
Rhiw, Llanbedr,
Gwynedd LL45 2NT
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0) 1341 241717
Facsimile: +44 (0) 1341 241712
Email: mail@boxwoodtours.co.uk
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| ..................................................THIS TOUR SOLD OUT |
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| .......................................Stemma araldica di Torino |
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Between the Mountains and the Plain takes Hortus from the Alpine meadows of northern Piedmont, through paddy fields and rows of poplars in the Po Valley to the handsome streets of Turin. This is unusual territory for a garden tour, and yet it was here that Russell Page designed some of his most famous gardens, and his pupil Paolo Pejrone – now Italy’s best-known landscape architect and garden writer – has made his own garden. Page and Pejrone will be a constant presence throughout the tour, as we visit two of Page’s landscapes, enjoy Pejrone’s company at Bramafam, and visit several private gardens that he has designed. Pejrone’s passion for plants led him to join forces with Marella Agnelli some years ago to found Tre Giorni per il Giardino, the finest garden fair in Italy. We will avoid the crowds by visiting this wonderful three-day event, held in the grounds of Masino castle, when it opens on the first day. The tour will also take us to the magnificent landscapes of palaces and villas belonging to the House of Savoy, whose link with Piedmont spanned almost nine centuries. Here we will find gardens deeply influenced by French fashion, where green Versailles boxes replace terracotta pots for lemons, and the deciduous trees that grow so well in the area are planted in broad avenues. We will also notice the influence of France in Piedmontese cookery, where butter often takes the place of olive oil. And finally, finding ourselves in the birthplace of the campaign for good food, we will take the opportunity to eat in a Slow Food restaurant. |
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ITINERARY, ET CETERA
Day 1: Thursday, 1st May
Depart from London Gatwick on flight number BA2578 at 15.05 hrs arriving Turin at 17.50. Drive north to Villa Matilde where the frescoed halls of the eighteenth-century villa look out over Alpine meadows and mountains. Dinner will be served in the converted stable block that serves as the hotel restaurant.
Day 2: Friday 2nd May
Drive the short distance to Castello Masino for the opening of I Tre Giorni per il Giardino, one of the oldest and most prestigious garden fairs in Italy. Free time for lunch among Slow Food and local produce stands before driving on to Castello di Agliè, a vast seventeenth century palace, built for the House of Savoy and surrounded by gardens and parkland. We spend tonight at the Villa Matilde, where we will eat together in the hotel restaurant.
Day 3: Saturday 3rd May
Today we are invited to the private villa of the Peyrani family, where we will see the extensive new gardens, decorative orchards and potagers laid out around the villa by Paolo Pejrone. We eat together at the cafe of Slow Food’s flagship store in the heart of old Turin before checking in at The Town House, an ideally-placed elegant small hotel in the city centre. Later in the afternoon we will have a short guided tour of the city to include visits to the charming reconstruction of a medieval herb garden at Palazzo Madama in Piazza Castello, followed by dinner at a local restaurant.
Day 4: Sunday 4th May
We begin the day at Palazzo Reale in Piazzetta Reale, where a garden and park were designed in typically French style by Andre Le Nôtre for the Duke of Savoy. We are invited for lunch at Villa Silvio Pellico, an intriguing neo-gothic villa surrounded by a Russell Page landscape. Our hostess, Raimonda Lanza di Trabbia, has given up city life to devote herself to the restoration of this extraordinary garden. After lunch we visit a series of pools and garden rooms designed by Paolo Pejrone at the Spinola Banna Foundation. The evening is free for your own choice of entertainment and dinner.
Day 5: Monday 5th May
This morning we have an invitation to Paolo Pejrone’s own garden, a wonderful plant collection set in a spectacular ravine on the edge of a small village south of Turin. After lunch we travel on to Castello Cataneo, where garden, farmland and magnificent trees create a beautiful setting for the villa. We will share a final dinner this evening at a local Slow Food restaurant.
Day 6: Tuesday 6th May
Today we are privileged to visit the wonderfully sinuous landscape of trees, water and herbaceous planting designed by Russell Page for the Agnelli family, one of few Russell Page gardens in Italy to remain intact. Other areas in the garden were later developed by Page’s pupil, Paolo Pejrone. After lunch we travel back to Turin air-port in time for our flight BA2579 that departs at 17.00 and arrives in London, Gatwick at 17.45.
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Selected reading:
The Education of a Gardener by Russell Page
The Gardens of Russell Page by Gabrielle van Zuylen
Italian Gardens: A Cultural History by Helena Attlee
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How much & what's included:
The price per person: £2789.00
Single supplement: £250.00 (levied by the hotels)
For those not wishing to fly with the group we can deduct £78.00 per person
The price includes: 2 nights bed & breakfast accommodation at Hotel Villa Matilde and 3 nights bed & breakfast accommodation at The Town House, Turin; 4 lunches and 4 dinners with wine, plus return flights from London, Gatwick to Turin.
ATOL protectedAll the flights and flight-inclusive holidays on this website are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. When you pay you will be supplied with an ATOL Certificate. Please ask for it and check to ensure that everything you booked (flights, hotels and other services) is listed on it. Please see our booking conditions for further information. For more information about financial protection and the ATOL Certificate go to: ATOL Certificate
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Online BookingTo make a reservation online click here BOXWOOD TOURS ONLINE |
ContactBoxwood Tours,
Rhiw, Llanbedr,
Gwynedd LL45 2NT
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0) 1341 241717
Facsimile: +44 (0) 1341 241712
Email: mail@boxwoodtours.co.uk |
