FRENCH GARDENS

PRESENTED BY :
NIDHI JINDAL
B.ARCH
5
TH
SEM
A51204011010
GLOSSARY OF FRENCH GARDENS

Parterre. A planting bed, usually square or rectangular, containing an
ornamental design made with low closely clipped hedges, colored gravel,
and sometimes flowers. Parterres were usually laid out in geometric
patterns, divided by gravel paths. They were intended seen from above
from a house or terrace. A parterre de gazon was made of turf with a
pattern cut out and filled with gravel.[9]
Broderie (eng: Embroidery) A very curling decorative pattern within a
parterre, created with trimmed yew or box or made by cutting the pattern
out of a lawn and filling it with colored gravel.
Bosquet. A small group of trees, usually some distance from the house,
designed as an ornamental backdrop.
Alle. A straight path, often lined with trees.
Topiary. Trees or bushes trimmed into ornamental shapes. In French
gardens, they were usually trimmed into geometric shapes.
Patte d'Oie. (Eng: Goose foot). Three or five paths or alles which spread
outward from a single point.
PRINCIPLES OF FRENCH GARDEN
DESIGN
A geometric plan using the most recent discoveries of perspective and optics.









A terrace overlooking the garden, allowing the visitor to see all at once the entire garden. As
the French landscape architect Olivier de Serres wrote in 1600, "It is desirable that the
gardens should be seen from above, either from the walls, or from terraces raised above the
parterres.
All vegetation is constrained and directed, to demonstrate the mastery of man over
nature.[Trees are planted in straight lines, and carefully trimmed, and their tops are trimmed
at a set height.







The residence serves as the central point of the garden, and its central ornament. No trees
are planted close to the house; rather, the house is set apart by low parterres and trimmed
bushes.
A central axis, or perspective, perpendicular to the facade of the house, on the side opposite
the front entrance. The axis extends either all the way to the horizon (Versailles) or to piece
of statuary or architecture (Vaux-le-Vicomte). The axis faces either South (Vaux-le-Vicomte,
Meudon) or east-west (Tuileries, Clagny, Trianon, Sceaux). The principal axis is composed of a
lawn, or a basin of water, bordered by trees. The principal axis is crossed by one or more
perpendicular perspectives and alleys.

VAUX-LE-VICOMTE A FREANCH ESTATE IN 18
TH

CENTUARY
The most elaborate parterres, or planting beds, in the shape of squares, ovals,
circles or scrolls, are placed in a regular and geometric order close to the house, to
complement the architecture and to be seen from above from the reception
rooms of the house



.

The parterres near the residence are filled with embroideries, designs created with
low boxwood to resemble the patterns of a carpet, and given a polychrome effect
by plantings of flowers, or by colored brick, gravel or sand.




Farther from the house, the embroideries are replaced with simpler
parterres, filled with grass, and often containing fountains or basins of
water. Beyond these, small carefully created groves of trees serve as an
intermediary between the formal garden and the masses of trees of the
park. "The perfect place for a stroll, these spaces present alleys, stars,
circles, theaters of greenery, galleries, spaces for balls and for festivities."

Bodies of water (canals, basins) serve as mirrors, doubling the size of the
house or the trees.







The garden is animated with pieces of sculpture, usually on mythological
themes, which either underline or punctuate the perspectives, and mark
the intersections of the axes, and by moving water in the form of cascades
and fountains.

PALACE OF VERSAILLES
The Gardens of Versailles occupy part of what was once the Domaine royal
de Versailles, the royal demesne of the chteau of Versailles. Situated to
the west of the palace, the gardens cover some 800 hectacres of land,
much of which is landscaped in the classic French Garden style perfected.

The palace and the gardens are both seminal examples of Baroque design
which includes features such as parterres, buildings on axes, focal points
within gardens and integration with the surrounding landscape. Versailles
consists of a central axis with a series of cross axes which creates the
framework for the layout of the highly organized palace and garden. The
palace creates one of the cross axes off of the central axis. The other cross
axes created the framework for geometric designs within the landscape
most of which had a focal point or central feature.
Significance

Versailles was a statement of French royal power and control, however, the design influenced
garden design and city planning first in Europe and stretched across the globe. The axis and
cross axis configuration extended to and organized the town of Versailles . The axial design
was implemented in Paris after the attempted revolution in 1848. The axial design made it
harder for the rebellious citizens of Paris to create blockades used in revolutions. The axes
and cross axes design which formed grids can be seen around the world today in city and
town planning.
PLAN OF PALACE OF VERSAILLES