Photo : Pierre Tribhou / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Les Jardins d'Orsan
The gardens of the Notre-Dame d'Orsan priory are at Maisonnais, in the south of the Cher, in Berry. The priory was founded in the twelfth century by Robert d'Arbrissel, founder of the order of Fontevraud, and long housed a religious community.
The gardens were recreated in the 1990s in the spirit of medieval monastic gardens. They are organised in distinct spaces, with a garden of simples devoted to medicinal plants, a vegetable garden, an orchard, a pleasure garden and trellises, delimited by arbours and woven-wood fences. Each space evokes the use the monks made of plants: to feed, to heal, to pray and to rest.
The site has borne the Remarkable Garden label since 2004. The visit is free and takes a good hour. The priory, with its restored buildings, is a peaceful setting in the heart of the Berry countryside.
