La Javelière Manor Park

55 kilometres from L'Echappée Belle, you will find a magnificent park classified as a "remarkable garden". This beautiful manor house dates from the 17th century. At that time it was a vineyard.

The current owners bought it in 1992.
They were not professional gardeners but decided to transform this four acre property after visiting many parks in Europe, particularly in England.
A lot of work was necessary and the maintenance of the park keeps the owners and two gardeners busy.

Today you can admire a thousand trees and shrubs, including two hundred conifers and nearly a thousand rosebushes that love the clay soil of the park!

The park is divided into two parts on either side of the manor house.

The first part consists of gardens of different styles. The first is the rose garden around a pond. A multitude of white and pink roses surround you. Then the Italian garden, much more structured, the Japanese garden with its Zen atmosphere, the shade garden with its hydrangeas and rhododendrons, etc, etc.

I won't tell you everything! Because this park is made to be discovered. It is made up of different spaces, more or less hidden, and in this or that corner you can discover a sculpture or a particularly striking shrub. Light and shade are constantly changing and perspective is king.

It is a peaceful setting where you can relax on one of the park benches and listen to the birdsong.

The second part, behind a magnificent baroque topiary hedge designed by the owner, gives way to more open planting around a pond dug in 1994. Here is the national conservatory of botanical roses, one of only two in France.
Around the pond, daisies and lavender keep the rosebushes company, while carp, moorhens, ducks... bring this beautiful setting to life.

The collection of botanical roses allows you to discover that the eglantine, the ancestor of our roses, is not a single species.
These roses come from China, America and the Middle East. They flower abundantly, but only once a year, unlike the perennial roses.
And then they produce small, colourful fruits.

The owner will be able to tell you passionately about these roses, their history and even what we call their thorns, their spines!

Do you know...?

- The name "La Javelière" comes from the term "javelle" which was a small bundle of vine shoots (the property was originally a vineyard).

- The Parc du Manoir de la Javelière is also an LPO refuge, i.e. an ecological garden where the owner is committed to preserving and welcoming biodiversity.

- The bluish colour of the pond is natural. It comes from the clay soil of its bottom which is regularly stirred by the carps of the pond.

If you are interested, you can buy the books about gardening that the owner, Patrick Masure, has written. For example, " Chers jardins " will tell you the fate of people who have a passion for gardening that leads them to ruin.

Website of La Javelière Manor Park