17 February 2007

'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.

8 comments:

  1. The photography is very nice. The enlarged version is even nicer as it allows me to see into the shadows a bit more. I have photos of my town/city and it is in a state of decay brought on by old landlords without a vision for the future. I have to dig them out. They are on my oldmanlincoln dot com website at the bottom listed under A Day At... Have a nice day. It is snowing here again.

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  2. Abraham,

    That's a great compliment coming from you. This was actually taken with my old camera last summer. I hope the new camera will do even better.

    This garden is now owned by a Garden society in PACA who have recently restored it - a restoration that took two or three years.

    Jilly

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  3. Very beautiful garden with cute double pool. I like it a lot!
    Have a nice weekend :)

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  4. i guess your place is a paradise! I love these photos:)

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  5. what a peaceful, warm and intimate place! Nice capture.

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  6. It looks very pleasant. I visited Hidcote more than 30 years ago.

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  7. Nice shot and nice garden too! I visited Hidcot gardens and found them really beautiful but I didn't know Lawrence Johnston had created a garden in Menton as well.

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