Le Château du Rivau et ses jardins de Conte de Fées

Type de jardin:

Renaissance garden
Botanical collections
Special collections
Recent creation
Floral park
Rose garden
Kitchen garden
Maze

It would seem as if Château de Rivau had sprung from a fairy tale… A shrine to the medieval castle, yet the fairy tale gardens are a contemporary creation.
The twelve gardens of Rivau blend botanical collections with garden creativity. Guided by the topiary shapes of imps, fairies and other fantastical creatures, ramblers in the gardens of Rivau will be immersed in the site’s historical past. All members of the family can relax along a walk of charming and unexpected surprises (the ogre’s cabin, the dragon of the enchanted forest, the flower-pot family). Each garden colours following the seasons with a succession of multiple flowerings: in May, the 6,000 irises, the Japanese peonies, alliums and oriental poppies will bewitch even the most blasé.

In June, the 400 varieties of roses will fascinate lovers of this queen of flowers (in 2007, Rivau’s collection of fragrant roses received the CCVS collection label of fragrant roses).

In July and August, “belles des champs”, red poppies, cornflowers and graminae will enchant nostalgic lovers of yesterday’s gardens.

The “Jardin des Philtres d’Amour” presents herbs that will cast a spell and those that will break it, in a contemporary interpretation of the “parterres à compartiments”.

In September, pumpkins play with the giant vegetables of the Potager de Gargantua, dahlias bewitch the visitor, whilst the ancient varieties of the “Verger du Paradis” will make their mouths water.

Throughout the season in Alice’s maze in the Land of Rivau, sculptures made of both welded metal and climbing plants will grab the imagination of little ones as well as adults. Four-century old box and the park’s remarkable trees add even more interest to the place.

The gardens of Rivau are also a contemporary sculpture park. Every year, artists are invited to present a work of art that bears some relationship to the gardens (in partnership with the Centre de Création Contemporaine). The gardens of Rivau have a claim on modernity in the art of gardens.