les Jardin des Marqueyssac

This allee is absolutely divine. All you can smell at this time of the year is that sweet acidic and pleasantly skunky fragrance of the boxwoods where ever you walk. In the woods to the left is a drystone wall carpeted in thick rug-like moss that runs perpendicular to the allee. Here, I have been reminded of what a great time this is to visit France. The temperature was well into the 20's in the sun, being on top of a rocky ridge and surrounded by limestone cliffs, yet there was a cool breeze and a very soft landscape that surrounded me. When I was in Paris I had the galleries, the streets, the architecture, the city almost to myself, there were at times crowds, but not the bustle of tourists, just the rustling of locals.

Here at Marqueyssac I wandered for atleast 2 hours, and for an hour I didn't encounter one person! Because this photo highlights just one person in the distance it seems even lonelier, and it helps to put the sweet solitude of this place into perspective, before the hideous crowds in summer. This garden sees over a million visitors in the summer and is the most visited in the Dordogne.

This mass planting of boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) becomes a theme of this garden, the melody that is constant throughout the bones of this garden.  Just to the side and back of the chateau is this labyrinthine essay in topiary.  It is notable for its billowing organic shapes and lack of strict geometry.  This garden was radically altered by its 19th century creator, Julien de Cervel, who was  deeply influenced by Italianate gardens and decided to imitate their relaxed formality and do away with the previous design which followed in suit with the designs of Andre Le Notre (known for Versailles).  He planted over 150,000 boxwoods, and also built a few cabannes as follies, or eye-catchers, following in the romantic tradition.  The photo I included in this post was at the end of a long allee and was called the Asile du Poete, or the Poet's Hut - inside it had an unspecified poem by Diderot written in, to me, incomprehensible french.  I can struggle out a basic conversation, but I can't read Enlightenment french.  

I am pretty sure that these are not original stone carvings, although they do have a little look of age as moss and a slight patina has set in.  There are other modern sculptures that dot about this garden, and they are mostly anachronistic and jarringly out of place.  These little phantasmagoric heads poking out of the ground are kind of eerie, but suit the woods.  It reminds me of the Italian garden Il Sacro Bosco which I think of often.