So today brought us to the reason for the trip: Les Jardins de Quatre Vents, a private garden open only four days each year. Sue and I had coffee on the terrace overlooking the river, then we took the short drive to the garden. We were reconciled to a tour in French, but there were enough English speakers to put together an English-language tour.
The huge property along the river was acquired in 1902; Frank Talbot began developing it as a garden in the 1950’s. The summer house is a charmingly modest farmhouse in French provincial style.
There are a couple of dozen separate gardens linked around the house. Cabot was especially interested in thematic gardens, often organized around picturesque vistas or perspectives.
The main lawn has sweeping views down to the bay below.
This photo also highlights another element uniting the gardens: water that flows from the rushing mountain stream on the property. Cabot was clearly interested in reflection.
There were of course some gorgeous borders, but the gardens are finally not about flowers.
As you walk further from the house, you enter the woods and a series of much less formal gardens.
Cabot had seen a Moon Bridge in China, and recreated one at Quatre Vents.
The gardens border on lovely farmlands; Cabot had the upright stone in the middle distance placed in the center of this field.
Probably the most intriguing part of the garden is the series of reflecting pools leading to a large folly.
Behind the folly is a maze…as we walked, we began to hear music…first Dixieland and then a string quartet. Here are our entertainers.
At this point, our guide suggested that Tom be led on a different path: our way led us into a deep ravine over very rough cobbled paths…to a Japanese garden centered on a meditation pavilion built over a period of ten years by a master carpenter from Japan.
Cabot clearly had a fondness for the ravine: he placed his own image here.
He had also seen rope bridges over ravines and chasms while trekking in Nepal, and recreated the effect here. You can see that someone is enjoying the garden.
The tour finally led us back up out of the ravine, emerging below the house and above the pool.
Here’s a final shot of our unusually congenial group. The others were from Ontario, Seattle, and a family with Arizona ties, parents and a married son and wife. It turns out the that the young woman had attended my high school!
