Monet's Garden
& THE GARDENS OF NORMANDY

Date: Thursday 5th - Monday 9th July, 2012

Cost: €1,025 per person sharing

IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE IRISH GARDEN MAGAZINE

Itinerary:

This tour is based in Dieppe, a charming port town on the English Channel, famous for its scallops! It has a lovely promenade alongside its pebbled beach, a 15th century castle and the churches of Saint-Jacques and Saint Remi.

Normandy not only has a long coastline but a beautiful landscape with thatched cottages, traditional farming and a wonderful selection of gardens, both public and private. En route to Dieppe, we visit Monet's Garden in Giverny (below) – one of the highlights of this tour.

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Thursday 5 July
Meet Iain MacDonald at Dublin Airport for morning flight to Paris. We go directly to Giverny to visit the garden created by Monet and familiar to all who have seen his paintings. He devoted his life – and all his money – to the garden. Although it was neglected after his death, both house and garden have been carefully restored to their former glory. We then transfer to our hotel, the Mercure Dieppe la Présidence, located opposite the beach. Dine in the hotel as a group this evening. http://www.mercure.com/gb/hotel-7014-mercure-dieppe-la-presidence/index.shtml

Friday 6 July
Our first visit of the day is to The Shamrock Garden at Varengeville sur Mer, renowned worldwide for its magnificent collection of hydrangeas. We then go to Parc et Jardin de Miromesnil – sheltered behind towering beeches is a 16th century chateau, birthplace of Guy de Maupassant. Formal avenues and hedging surround the chateau but the flower-filled potager is a fine example of a traditional French Garden. We lunch at the Chateau before visiting our final garden - Parc Floral William Farcy set in the heart of the village of Offanville, a five-acre garden with 18 separate themed areas and a vast array of plants from old roses to trees to grasses.

Saturday 7 July
Free morning to explore Dieppe; adjacent to the hotel is the castle which houses the town museum. The shopping area and colourful market is just a short stroll away. In the afternoon, we travel a short distance along the coast to Parc du bois des Moutiers. The only property in France designed by Edwin Lutyens, it is an Arts and Crafts-inspired house and garden. It has a unique series of rooms planted with mixed shrubs, herbaceous perennials and roses.

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Sunday 8 July
We travel inland to the tranquil rural heartland of Upper Normandy Chateau de Bosmelet which is best known for its potager designed by Baroness de Bosmelet, a Chelsea Flower Show gold medallist; its carefully sequenced colour schemes integrate flowers, vegetables and fruit to create a rainbow effect. We lunch here and in the afternoon visit the remarkable Agapanthe Garden – a garden of great style and originality where water, stone, topiary and planting combine to create an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity. Finally Clos du Coudray; this garden is an ambitious floral mosaic of more than 8,000 varieties of plants.

Monday 9 July
Check out of our hotel and head into the countryside to visit Jardins de Valerianes, a garden of two parts – one a mature cottage style and the other a more recently developed contemporary garden with an astonishing range of trees and shrubs. We lunch at Jardins d'Angelique, a beautiful romantic garden where roses and clematis drape over arches and pergolas underplanted with exuberant perennials. Behind the small chateau is an awe-inspiring formal French garden with fountains, topiary and the oldest Japanese maple in Europe. Our final garden of the tour is Jardin Plume, a contemporary garden with a structured geometric design softened by generous and vibrant planting of grasses and herbaceous perennials. Return to Paris for our flight to Dublin.

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GUIDES: Iain MacDonald, a qualified and experienced gardener and guide, escorts this tour; he will be available at all times to help and advise you, particularly to introduce and/or escort you to the restaurants of Dieppe.

HOTEL: We are based in the Mercure Dieppe la Présidence, located opposite the beach.

Further details from: Frances MacDonald (tours@thebaygarden.com)

Cost includes ...

• flights
  
• all private coach transfers
  
• garden entrances
• guides
• lunches where mentioned
• bed & breakfast in hotel
  
• group dinner in hotel on first evening.

COST: €1,025.00 per person sharing

Single Supplement: €160.00

Deposit: €300.00 – Cheque or bank draft payable to Bay Garden Tours.

All of our tours have a final booking date but as our numbers are limited, they tend to book out before those dates (particularly single rooms) so we would recommend early booking.

Itinerary subject to change