Welcome to Les Jardins d'Étretat
Welcome to Les Jardins d'Étretat
Les jardind d'étretat are a group of gardens with a neo-futuristic theme, situated on the coastline of Normandy. The name Les Jardins d'Étretat simply means ''the gardens of Étretat''. These beautiful gardens in Normandy are also listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO and are known for its various sections, each with a various theme and feel.
Welcome to the garden ''The Jardin émotions''
Inspired by the first French oyster farm
The gardens are made up of different parts which are all slightly different. The first part I wanna talk about is the most remarkable one to me: ''The Jardin émotions''. It was modeled after the first oyster farm in France, which was located next to the gardens. The artists who developed the garden choose to place giant faces between the boxwood hedges, faces which express all the emotions from the ocean and its inhabitants, while the boxwood hedges curved in a caterpillar-like shape.
*The Boxwood hedges are shaped in an artistic way, similar shaped as caterpillar with its many curves. I am pretty sure it is hard to maintain such shapes.
Jardin Zen || Garden of Zen
The f=garden of zen resembles a peaceful coexisting living of man and nature. In this area, only white flowers are blooming, but not yet in June, the time we visited. It symbolizes a feeling of virginal purity.
The trees are decorated with asian looking decorations, which awaken my memories of visits to Thai buddhist temples. You can take a book and find yourself a peaceful spot to read, for example in a chair which is hanging to the tree, and swing slowly back and forward while getting ''zen'' slowly by experiencing the harmonie with nature.
Jardin d'amont
The terrace of Jardin d’Amont is the most beautiful part of the garden. The well maintained boxwood hedges almost look like the Indian tea fields, which are truly astonishing.
Grab a drink and some food
There is also a small food stand where you can grab a sandwich and something to drink, which is great on a hot day like this one. You can rest a bit on this terrace down the hill, before going back up. For us young people maybe not so necessary, but many eldern people are visiting this place so it is highly appreciated.
The other parts of the gardens are less remarkable to me, but still beautiful with its hagues and its flower-like shape trimmed trees.
The garden is quite expensive, 12 Euros/USD per person, but when you realize how much work it is to maintain all of the details and perfectly shaped plants, it is quite understandable that they have to charge this amount of money for a garden.
I would still recommend you to wander through the gardens for a bit when visiting the cliffs of Étretat, which I will show you in my next blog.
Thanks for passing by!
Regards,
Sascha