Tag Archives: formal garden

Barcelona Ciutadella Park: The Formal Gardens

The Ciutadella Park in Barcelona is the largest and oldest city park. It was established in the mid 19th century and was for a long the only substantial green space in the city with about 70 acres of paths, trails, a lake, and assorted statuary and buildings. It is home to the Parliament building, the Barcelona Zoo, and the Geological museum. It is perhaps most famous for the very large waterfall fountain designed by Fontsere in the 1880s when Gaudi was his student and is believed to have contributed to it. It was inaugurated for the Universal Exhibition. See my other post for more on the fountain and the rest of the park.

The gardens by the Parliament and the Zoo are the most formal part of the Ciutadella, with neatly trimmed hedges, rows of plane trees, roses borders and a fountain.

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A formal French Garden on a Locronan Roundabout

Next in my series of posts on French landscaped roundabouts, is this very elegantly landscaped one in Locronan, Brittany. Round shaped boxwoods, bonsai shaped trees, topiaries and assorted evergreens give it year round beauty, while hydrangeas which have a long blooming season in Brittany) add some color.

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General view
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General view

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A Formal French Garden in Historic Quimper

Along the old wall, next to the Quimper cathedral on one side and the Odet river on the other with its flowered bridges, is this small park. It is landscaped in the style typical of  the formal French gardens, with  the low growing edges of boxwood around the symmetrical curved borders, and with topiaries at the corners.

The less traditional border at one end is filled with elephant ears.

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Chateau de Blain – A Formal Garden in a Brittany Castle

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In a typical small French town on a Brittany canal is the Chateau de Blain.  Built overlooking the water, it features a restaurant, formal gardens, a small round garden room built as a lookout for the archery tournament reenacted on the ground each year and some of the original 15th -16th century structure complete with a moat.

The formal border is done in a traditional French style, symmetrical with rounded and trimmed boxwood and large plantings of lavender as well as less conventional grasses.

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