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Coming up with a shortlist of France’s most beautiful gardens and parks is not the easiest thing to do. The French Ministry of Culture recognizes almost 1,300 gardens and designates over 200 as “remarkable”. Though scant few Medieval and Renaissance gardens survive, France still boasts an impressive numbers of Baroque gardens and small original gardens that attract visitors from across the globe.

The Gardens of Château de Courances

Home to one of the most beautiful gardens in Europe, Château de Courances was built in the late 16^th century near the spectacularly scenic forest of Fontainebleau. The palace’s 77 hectare park feature canals, cascades, sculptures and even a typical Japanese garden.

Claude Monet’s Garden of Giverny

A magnificent garden in the Eure department of northern France provides visitors with a singular opportunity to commune with one of the most famous artists of all time.

Claude Monet first saw Giverny through the window of a train. Immediately hit by inspiration, the master Impressionist moved his rather large brood to a modest home in town. Years later, the artist was comfortable enough to purchase and expand the property’s gardens significantly. Monet’s Giverny home as it stands today is divided up into two gardens: a flower garden and Japanese-inspired water garden. While not a typical Japanese garden per se, the latter definitely evokes Monet’s love of controlled nature – a feature quite common in French formal gardens as well. Over half a million people visit Giverny’s most famous attraction every year.

Garden of Château de Villandry

Originally built as a fortress, Château de Villandry ultimately evolved into one of the most famous manors of the Loire Valley – for which it shares UNESCO World Heritage honours. The stately château certainly boasts one of the most venerable and beautiful gardens in France. Laid out as a three-level Renaissance garden, Villandry is partitioned in three: a water garden, ornamental garden and kitchen garden, or potager. The water garden dominates the upper level, with a grand pool and beautiful fountains, while the ornamental garden features landscaped box hedges. The kitchen garden, at the bottom, is a decidedly carefree herb and vegetable garden.

Gardens of Versailles

Probably the most famous backyard in the world, the former Domaine royal de Versailles forms a lavish and pure expression of French landscape formalism. Designed by André Le Nôtre, in collaboration with King Louis XIV and his advisers, the UNESCO World Heritage Gardens of Versailles span more than 1 km² – a challenge for anyone to cover in one visit. The Sun King went to great lengths to pump water from the Seine and Eure all the way to Versailles, but the amazing fountains that now dominate the gardens were fully worth the effort. Combined with the elegant architecture and opulent interior of the palace, the gardens make Versailles one of the must-see man-made wonders of the world.

Manor d’Eyrignac

The truly remarkable garden of Manoir d’Eyrignac is just 15 km from the popular (and adorable) Aquitaine tourist town of Sarlat-la-Canéda. The handsome Dordogne department property has been handed down from generation to generation for 500 years. The manor’s gardens however, did not take shape until the 18^th century. Now over 4 hectares, the gardens of d’Eyrignac contain brilliant hedge-work, fountains, sculptures and a modest collection of flowers and plants. Above all else, this is a premier archetype of a topiary garden.

Champagne is the birthplace of arguably the world’s most famous wine. Several hundred kilometres east of Paris, this wonderful rural area is a peaceful oasis, with picturesque villages and endless vineyards.

Image by Wikimedia Commons

Grape cultivation in Champagne dates back to Roman times (and perhaps much earlier). The region is no different from the rest of France in that vineyard land and indeed, viticulture itself, was the traditional domain of the Church.

Because the climate of northeast France was not amenable to the same kind of grape varietals that thrive in Burgundy or the Loire for example, necessity was the mother of la méthode champenoise. A good deal of diligence and savvy from intrepid Benedictine monks led to the singular Champagne method in the early 16^th century. Today, the wonderful area grows Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier over more than 170,000 hectares. To visit nonpareil Champagne, where bubbly producers still observe venerable tradition, is truly, to step back in time.

Image by Wikimedia Commons

Image by Wikimedia Commons

The Champagne region’s annual output has undergone a formidable rise over the last two hundred years, from 300,000 bottles in 1800 to more than 300 million bottles in 2009. Champagne is now a €3.7 billion industry, with rampant consumption in France of course, but also Great Britain, the United States, Germany, Russia and Asia.

Image by Gin Fizz

Image by greenacre8

Image by Flashpacking Life

Champagne’s distinctive confluence of viticulture, architecture and industry has won the region a coveted spot on UNESCO’s tentative World Heritage list. The brilliant landscape of the area, rife with vineyards and estates, is sure to score induction in the near future. Few regions in Europe marry function and form, environment and architecture, so elegantly. The scenery of Champagne, from Troyes to the hills of Ardennes, is without peer.

Image by epicxero

Image by GeS

The best way to explore Champagne is to choose a route, or circuit, that best suits your time-frame and location. Marne offers two gorgeous routes that roll through the department’s exquisite valley. Other routes emanate from Reims, the historic capital of Champagne. The city of 190,000 people is also in Marne department and is a worthwhile destination. Épernay, another Marne gem, offers vineyard tours that ferry visitors through the Côte des Blancs district.

Whatever route you choose, be mindful of the fact that Champagne has five districts of wine production: Aube, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne, Montagne de Reims and Vallée de la Marne. By law, these districts are the only places on the planet that can label bottles as “Champagne”. Because superb hotels in Reims abound, most tourists begin their Champagne expedition in the wonderful city. With three UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Reims is a spectacular gateway to Champagne.

Image by Daxis