'La Serre de la Madone'

Menton is famous for its gardens and this double pool is a tiny part of perhaps the most beautiful of them all. La Serre de la Madone was created in the 1920s by Lawrence Johnston, an American by nationality, born in Paris to an American father and an English mother. Better known as the creator of the famous Hidcote gardens in the Cotswolds in England, he was an avid plantsman of independent means travelling the world collecting rare plants. He wanted a garden for his sub-tropical plants, eventually settling on 6 hectares of overgrown hillside planted with ancient olive trees and in the wondrous micro-climate that is Menton.