"In & Out of Paris: Gardens of Secret Delights"
The Canal de la Poêle’s "grottes" at Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte.
A rooftop garden in the 16th arrondissement designed by Camille Muller.
Colorful blossoms run amok at Monet's farmhouse, Giverny.
A private garden designed by Louis Benech, near the Musée Rodin.
Pierre Bergé’s private garden on Rue Bonaparte.
Book review by Carlo Balistrieri, Vice President of Preservation
What is it about Paris?
Amour, allure, haute couture, cuisine…Paris is considered by many people as the epicenter of Western style and taste. While some star-crossed lovers attach padlocks to the Pont de l’Archevêché on the Seine, others express their everlasting love amongst the remarkable lacework of gardens, parks, and green spaces that have characterized the city for generations.
It is no surprise that two activities which famously depend on light – gardening and photography – are relished in Paris, which earned the nickname “la Ville Lumière” during the age of enlightenment as the center of ideas and education .
Renowned for its Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Basilica of Sacré Cœur and some of the world’s most visited art museums, it is Paris’s gardens that design writer and editor Zahid Sardar and photographer Marion Brenner chose to celebrate in their new book, In & Out of Paris: Gardens of Secret Delights. There’s always room for another garden tome, and this one pays the rent.
More than 40 gardens are featured in 261 pages, beginning with the 100 designed acres of Château Vaux-le-Vicomte – the genesis of Louis XIV style – and ending with the Novotel Paris Les Halles’ modernist courtyard. The book addresses a wide variety of gardens in Paris and its environs. Old and new, large and small, traditional and contemporary, its range is pleasing and illuminating. Although the gardens are all located in Paris, their owners or designers hail from different lands and backgrounds, bringing with them influences and sensitivities to France’s evolving garden designs. While past masters of the form are saluted, the book also features designers working today.
The text is solid and full of information but not pedantic. Sardar’s writing is authoritative without being dry, and best when describing progress at gardens most people think have remained unchanged through the ages. Brenner’s photography is first rate and occasionally hides a visual surprise, such as silhouetted lovers at lake’s edge in Parc des Buttes Chaumont.
It is always enlightening to visit places with gardens that are older than the U.S., even if through the pages of a book. It is most interesting to note that even Versailles – sacrosanct among garden intelligentsia – is bowing to change with the addition of a permanent exhibit area for modern art.
In fact, Paris could be credited as the first major metropolitan center to engage in “greening,” from the days when Baron Haussmann, Napoleon III’s Prefect of the Seine Department, configured the city’s current arrondissements or administrative districts, liberally sprinkling his audacious plan with parks and squares to deliver light and air to the center of the city and beautify its streets and widened avenues.
Paris also has its challenges, such as the current threat to the historic Jardin des serres d’Auteuil and its iconic hothouses, and the controversial expansion of Roland Garros, home of the French Open. Through it all, Paris remains not just the “City of Light;” it is a city of gardens.
In & Out of Paris: Gardens for Secret Delights is published by Gibbs Smith. The Garden Conservancy is co-hosting a sold-out book talk with Sardar and Brenner on Thursday, April 2, at Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco.
All photos by Marion Brenner.
