Required Reading: Private Gardens of Paris - Gardenista
Care to stroll through the hidden gardens of Paris without leaving your home? Private Gardens of Paris by Alexandra D’Arnoux, Bruno De Laubadére, and Gilles De Chabaneix will take you behind gates and walls to uncover the secrets of some of the city’s most exclusive sanctuaries. The book is divided by three themes: Classical Gardens, Picturesque Gardens, and Exotic Gardens. Each garden is special in its own right, yet a quintessential Parisian thread runs through: rose bushes, iron fencing and furniture, and brick can found in nearly all 34 gardens highlighted in the book. A convent of 18th-century Saint Germain nuns built several private mansions to host the daughters of France’s aristocracy. Considered to be one of Paris’s more exotic gardens, this bog garden covers ground that was once occupied by old crafts workshops. The ateliers were converted into a house by architect Paul Nataf while the landscape designer Michel Boulcour set out to inject an exotic feel into the garden with lilies and irises. An oval fountain lends a picturesque tranquility behind a family mansion in the 7th Arrondissement. Fashion designer Renata wanted “a house with a garden, both as a place to live with her family and as a location for a workshop” which she found on a secluded street near the Rue de Rennes. Blooming roses climb the back of the house owned by Baron and Baronne d’Orgeval. A tiny outdoor room is created in a lavish kitchen garden near the 20th Arrondissement.