Parc Oriental de Maulévrier
This beautiful park is the largest Japanese garden in France. Winner of the second prize for the best park in France competition 2006.
le Parc oriental de Maulévrier
Originally designed by Alexander Marcel, a leading French architect at the end of the 19th and begining of the 20the Century. Marcel marrried the daughter of the owners of the chateau at Maulevrier and as he and many of the fashionable crowd of the time were inspired by all things oriental he designed a Japanese garden for his new familly. Marcel had designed three pavilllions for the 1900 Universal Exhibition at Paris and he bought some parts of these works for his gardens at Maulevrier. Marcel and his wife spent some of their married lives at the chateau but upon their deaths the gardens fell into decline.
In 1980 the commune bought the park and restored it using photographs and memories of people who had seen the park. Originally called the Park of Chateau Colbert it was renamed as the Parc Oriental in 1985. Japanese professors from the horticultural studies at Tokyo and Niigata universities have recognised the gardens as having the style of the EDO period of gardening in Japan (XVIe- XIXe siècles).
The park covers 29 hectares and is very beautiful, notably perhaps in spring for the camellias, azaleas and rhodedendrons and autumn for the lovely autumn colour of the acers.
The garden is open every day except Mondays (14-18h) from the middle of March to the end of November. In July and August it is open every day from 10h30 to 19h30.
Address: Parc Oriental de Maulévrier, 49360 Maulevrier
Tel: (33) 2 41 55 50 14