Patrons of North America’s premier horticultural display garden enjoyed a wonderful, week-long tour of The Gardens of Provence.
The group stayed at the luxury five-star Hotel Royal-Riviera on the St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat peninsula, the perfect location for exploring the abundance of both private and public Provençal gardens. The itinerary showcased the remarkable variety of the region’s gardens and their history; from the flamboyance of the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild to the tranquillity of the Arts and Crafts garden, Le Clos du Peyronnet, and the innovative designs of James Basson’s “dry gardens”.
The tour ventured from Grasse in the west to Menton in the east, as well as crossing the border into Italy where the group enjoyed exclusive private visits to two significant gardens in Ventimiglia – the historic Villa Boccanegra, dating back to 1554; and Hanbury Botanical Garden, with its breathtaking clifftop location and 2,500 plant species from the six Mediterranean climate zones of the world. The trip also included visits to Henri Matisse’s extraordinary Chapelle due Rosaire and the Fondation Maeght in St Paul de Vence, as well as dining in some of the region’s finest restaurants.