Les Jardins des Renaudies

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Les Jardins des Renaudies 

It's not often you get to wander round well-tended gardens for free and back in May, Pen and I were offered two complimentary tickets to see Les Jardins des Renaudies in Columbiers du Plessis, just south-west of Gorron.

To be perfectly honest, we weren't really all that interested, and being as it wasn't exactly brilliant sunshine, we were tempted to cry off, but since we would be getting in for free, we relented and decided to give it a go.

The day wasn't just Les Jardins des Renaudies, but there would also be many artisans there with carved wood pieces, dairy produce, baked goods and lots of other stuff - including our friend Gerard and his wines.



We arrived reasonably early and after reserving several bottles of Gerard's wine, disappeared to have a look round. We began by looking round near to the lodge, which was where most of the artisans had been placed and where we discovered that not only did Les Jardins des Renaudies have gardens, but also a fairly well-stocked museum too!

I have just added a small number of exhibits, after all, if I showed you everything, there'd be no reason for you to go see it, would there?

However, everything from apple presses, to mobile stills - for the Calvados, tractors and threshers are on show, with the complete freedom to walk around the exhibits.

After a few snaps, we returned to the lodge area, got ourselves coffees and wandered round the many artisan's stalls. These included cheeses and other dairy goods, but having been bitten by people selling goods at these kinds of places at ridiculous prices before (see: The 20€ piece of cheese), we steered clear of all of them.

Instead, we set off to have a look at the rest of the gardens

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About Les Jardins Des Renaudies

The gardens were opened in 1988 and created by Jean Renault, a nurseryman passionate about plants. They are made up of many rare species brought in from many different countries and laid out in twenty-one massive beds, forming an English garden style.

Covering four hectares, over 3.000 flowering plant varieties, trees and shrubs keep interest in the garden throughout the season as well as more formal vegetable gardens and during the season, there is a maize maze with routes of over one and a half kilometres which is a must for children and adults alike.

In addition to the plants, there are also sculptures and other pieces of art as well as functions including demonstrations of bee-keeping and Ikebana, the Japanese art of floral arrangement.

Our Visits

Our visit in May of this year, wasn't on one of the sunniest days, but it didn't detract from the spleadour of the Rhododendrons and Camilla, which provided us with a spectacular backdrop of colour, ranging from deep pinks and reds through orange and white.

Interspersed throughout the gardens were frames, giving the view a still-life quality that we hadn't seen utilised in a garden before.

In fact, there was much to keep us occupied during our visit, which turned out to give us a number of unexpected surprises and made us very pleased that we went.

One such surprise was the tree (right) that seemed to come from everywhere. The rough-hewn seat that sat beneath added to the magic, making the tree seem like something from a fantasy story rather than real life.

The water wheel also not only provided interest visually, but would turn every few moments, emptying its water noisily into the pond.

 Our visit on 24th August was no less spectacular. There sadly no Rhododendrons, but there were plenty of other flowering plants, some of which were truly breathtaking.


 We also discovered pathways between and around the beds that we had not found last time and I suspect that when we return, we will discover yet more.




We certainly tried the Maize Maze, which as described above, certainly gave us a walk as we tried once in, to find our way out.

I'm sure we could have remained inside for hours had Penny's sense of direction not been as good as it is!



These roses lose some of their appeal here on the computer monitor as it's impossible to appreciate the scent that was given off and I have to say, it was one of the strongest scented roses I have ever smelt.


All told, I feel we have found somewhere we will be visiting many more times over the years and probably will discover yet more things on each subsequent visit.

I can recommend this place to anyone and for more information, go to their website here.

A gardening job goes off with a bang

One of our customers has a fairly large garden with veg and flower beds, but the majority of it is left to grass. Our job since the beginning of the season has been to cut the grass twice a month and keep things relatively tidy.

Sadly, the rain has kept us away for the last couple of weeks and yesterday was the first time we'd been fortunate enough to get a break in the weather. After I'd tightened up the thumb nuts on the lawn mower, I got down to cutting the grass while Pen began strimming.

About fifteen minutes in, Penny noticed that something had moved in to a hole in the centre of a dead lupin plant which had stood on the corner of one of the veg beds.

The European wasp or
Yellowjacket

Wasps.

Or at least, we were pretty certain they were wasps.

Now I hate wasps with a passion, perhaps not as much as hornets, but then hornets hadn't moved into the neighbourhood, wasps had. 

They appeared to have built their nest in the centre of the now defunct plant and there were a couple of dozen of them buzzing around what we took to be the entrance. Pen warned me to give it a wide berth and I was only too happy to oblige.

A little later, we were surprised to see our client working away on one of the other veg beds and pointed out that he had an infestation of wasps.

"My wife told me they were bees," he said.

"No, they're wasps alright," we told him after some deliberation and peering at them from a safe(ish) distance.

He admitted he'd tried various things to get rid of them before, but had never managed it. He'd not tried again as his wife was sure they weren't wasps, but bees. Since by then we had convinced him that they weren't bees, he told us that he'd do something about it.

We went back to work, presuming that he'd go away, contact an expert and get someone to come round at a later date to get rid of them.

Much to our surprise, moments later, he returned with a two-gallon can and doused the hole with copious quantities of petrol. He then proceeded to light something that looked suspiciously like a lightly toasted marshmallow on the end of a four foot stick.

Pen and I backed away. We knew his interference would agitate the wasps - not a good idea at the best of times - but we continued to watch with more than a little trepidation.

"Can't you ask him to wait until we've gone?" I asked, since Pen's French was much better than mine.

Pen just laughed, but I was serious. I didn't feel comfortable and knew that in truth, neither did Pen. If he was going to do something silly, I would have felt much more comfortable somewhere else ... anywhere else and the further away, the better.

She realised and asked.

"Non," he said simply.

We moved farther back and after several failed attempts, he managed to set fire to whatever was on the end of his stick and cautiously approached the nest.

We took one more pace back. We could see the little blighters buzzing around and getting more active the closer he got, but with a final lunge, he tossed the lit 'thing' complete with stick into the hole.

Nothing happened to begin with ... well, perhaps half a second ... then:

"WHOOOOMPH!" A sound that was reminiscent of half a pound of C4 exploding shook the very ground we stood upon, followed by a small but perfectly formed fireball that leapt from the hole about fifteen feet into the air. Our client was thrown backwards about the same distance, landing on his backside, glasses askew and one slipper missing.

Please don't ask why he was gardening in his carpet slippers. I didn't see fit to ask.

For a short while, we were a little shocked and didn't move, but then he began laughing and Pen chimed in with, "Tres sportif, monsieur!" and we all laughed.

The fire in the hole (literally), burned for about the next twenty minutes or so and curiously didn't seem to adversely affect the wasps, who continued to buzz around, just from a little further back than hitherto. However as soon as the fire went out, the little buggers went back inside again, apparently unperturbed by our client's attempt to barbecue them.

So apart from almost being sent into a low orbit and making us laugh our socks off, our client achieved absolutely nothing. We hope he'll try something a little less life-threatening the next time - God forbid there is a next time - which we hope will be much more deleterious to the wasps.

Who says gardening can't be adventuresome?

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