The 10 most beautiful parks and gardens

La Roche Jagu estate, outstanding views

In the heart of Le Trégor province, the 15th-century Château de la Roche-Jagu and its medieval-style estate offer outstanding views over the Trieux estuary. As you stroll through the grounds you’ll come across a wide range of different landscapes: medieval gardens, a palm grove, an avenue of camellias, lakes and retting ponds and salt meadows… not forgetting the horse pond and the pergola pathway with its sweet scents of roses, honeysuckle and wisteria. This 74-hectare estate can be explored on foot without booking ahead. Entrance is free and it’s open all year round.

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The Cornouaille Botanical Park, an English symphony

The Cornouaille Botanical Park, located between Bénodet and Pont-L’Abbé, boasts a collection of 4,000 plants from all over the world, a water-garden, an exotic garden and a museum of minerals. Through the months and along the avenues, you can explore the meanderings of this park in the English style, where curves are everywhere. Camellias, rhododendrons, magnolias, maples, hydrangeas and water-lilies mingle and complement each other in a symphonic arrangement of form, colour and scent.

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La Ballue Garden: the most beautiful garden for topiary art

La Ballue Garden is close to the Mont-Saint-Michel and overlooks the Couesnon valley. It draws its inspiration from Italian baroque. There’s plenty to interest visitors, including a fun labyrinthine route that passes through 13 different green enclosures. The garden is laid out geometrically, in the French style. Its topiary art, château and undulating landscape add to its harmonious beauty. Yews, privets, wisteria, box and bay shape the space into amazing volumes, perspectives and effects of light and shade. You’d think Lewis Carroll or Tim Burton had designed it. Entering this garden is like stepping into a picture.

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The Brocéliande Gardens, the most mysterious of all

At Bréal-sous-Montfort, tours of the Brocéliande Gardens happen upside down. You follow routes called Réveille tes pieds (Wake up your feet), Active tes sens (Awaken your senses), File là-haut (Climb up high) or Joue de l’eau. You go around in bare feet, with a blindfold, up the trees or with your head in the clouds, so you experience sensory adventures like never before. Feel the magic of the Sentier des korrigans (the elves’ pathway) or laugh at the inhabitants of Poul’ailleurs. If you’re in a more contemplative frame of mind, opt for an Asiatic Excursion or a stroll through the irises, roses and lilacs or the orchards filled with ancient apple varieties. In this garden with a difference, biodiversity goes hand in hand with creativity and working together.

The Haute Bretagne Botanical Park: the most original

Not far from Fougères, let your imagination run free in the Haute Bretagne Botanical Park. Covering 25 hectares, it has 24 poetic gardens in three groups (gardens of Arcadia, romantic gardens and twilight gardens), which will transport you down the ages and across continents. From spring to autumn, you can enjoy the many species, scents and views, and the ever-changing beauty of light and colours, from the ethereal blue of the hydrangeas to the flamboyant red of the rhododendrons. Have a family adventure tracking down a T-Rex, a ghost, the Minotaur or the weird carnivorous plants!

Kerdalo Garden: the most romantic

In the depths of a valley that slopes steeply down to the River Jaudy, the artist Peter Volkonski designed the 17-hectare Kerdalo Garden (today managed by his daughter and son-in-law) as a living tableau, with a strong chromatic bias and with water as the unifying principle. You’ll see ponds, cascades, a water staircase, a grotto, pavilions, bas-reliefs made of seashells and more. The soul and magic of this romantic place, crafted by nature and art, is utterly charming. Italian terraces sit side by side with English gardens and a meadow surrounds the manor house. It’s a real treasure, enriched by the presence of 5,000 local species, including many acid-loving cultivars, together with wild and exotic plants.

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The Trévarez estate park: centuries-old and contemporary too

In the centre of Finistère, overlooking the valley of the river Aulne, the Domaine de Trévarez park is the vast, 85-hectare setting for the pink Belle Époque château that was the modernist dream of James de Kerjégu. Its eclecticism is remarkable: French, Italian, Japanese, romantic gardens, fountains and architectural fantasies. And the park uses the landscape and the forest to its best advantage. With centuries-old collections of camellias, rhododendrons, not to mention oak trees, maples and fuchsias, the plant life provides a spectacular feast for the eyes in every season. You can also get to know the world of the contemporary artist is invited each year to be the artist in residence at the château (in 2016, the sculptor Robert Schad) and there are lots of entertainments and activities to keep the family amused.

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Daoulas Abbey: the most virtuous

Among its many treasures, Daoulas Abbey has a remarkable medicinal plant garden organised on two levels: Western Europe on one side and Oceania, Africa, America and Asia on the other. Overlooking the abbey church and the cloister, this herb garden combines medieval and Renaissance influences and forms a contrast with the romantic style of the vast grounds that surround it. From 2016 onwards, a garden containing medicinal trees has been added to complete the picture. There’s a camphor tree, a mandrake, a tea-tree and more. You can discover the medicinal, aromatic and flavouring properties of the 300 species from all over the world.

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