Spring is the season of gardens: bulbs, roses, camellias and flowering trees transform parks and botanical estates. It is also when waterfalls flow at full strength, fed by snowmelt and rain.
This selection combines remarkable gardens, from the exotic garden of Monaco to the terraces of Marqueyssac and Eyrignac, with a few spectacular waterfalls of the Jura and the Pyrenees, to be seen before summer.
Flowering dates vary every year and with altitude: check that gardens are open before you go, as many only open from April.
The Gardens of the Manoir d'Eyrignac can be visited at Salignac-Eyvigues, in the Black Périgord (Aquitaine region) and are typical French-style gardens.
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A classified site, the romantic and picturesque gardens of Marqueyssac offer more than 6 kilometres of shaded walks, lined with 150,000 hand-clipped century-old box trees, and enhanced by belvederes, rockeries, water trails and open-air theatres.
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An exotic park unique in Europe. Famous for its forest of giant bamboo and its national collection.
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An Eden for succulent plants, this garden laid out on the side of rock walls offers an exceptional panoramic view over the Principality of Monaco and the French and Italian Rivieras.
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The Domaine du Rayol – Jardin des Méditerranées is a botanical garden on the Corniche des Maures, in the commune of Le Rayol-Canadel-sur-Mer, in the French Var département.
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On the banks of the Allier, in the heart of a medieval village ranked among the "most beautiful villages of France", this flower park is a fairyland of scents and colours.
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The Maulévrier Oriental Park, labelled "Remarkable Garden", invites you to stroll and daydream.
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The Kerdalo gardens are in the French commune of Trédarzec in the Côtes-d'Armor département (Brittany).
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The Roscoff Exotic and Botanical Garden is the southern hemisphere in northern Finistère.
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The Provins Rose Garden was awarded the "Remarkable Garden" label in 2014.
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The Étretat gardens offer the most beautiful view of the sea and the famous needle. The property was for sale; a very rich Russian and his partner, a renowned landscape designer, bought it to make a fairy-tale garden.
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The Hérisson Waterfalls, the Éventail and the Grand Saut: they are located near Doucier, in the heart of the lakes region.
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The Cascade des Tufs: this waterfall has a particularity; it is petrifying: the water, travelling long distances across the plateau, becomes loaded with limestone by dissolution of the rock.
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Ranked the number-one natural site of Franche-Comté. From Villers-le-Lac, commented cruises of 14 km aboard tour boats offer a grandiose spectacle of the meanders of the Doubs, set in wild gorges.
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Here is the kingdom of granite and water; its impressive waterfalls and its many lakes make it a natural paradise where Empress Eugénie came to dream in the last century.
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