Les Jardins du Pays d'Auge in Cambremer in Normandy, France

Visit Les Jardins du Pays d'Auge

The gardens of the Pays d'Auge is a lovely established garden on a 3 hectare site. Originally a meadow surrounding an old farmhouse the garden has been transformed into a series of beautiful gardens each with their own character but following harmoniously one to the next. The garden has been given "Remarkable Garden" status.

The garden is in Normandy in the village of Cambremer inland from the seaside towns of Deauville and Trouville and the city of Caen.

Explore the Jardins du Pays d'Auge

The gardens have been designed around various themes. The Jardin du Soleil, of garden of the sun, is filled with plants with golden leaves or flowers with bold splashes of red and orange to add heat to the planting scheme. By contrast the Jardin de la Lune, or moon garden, is filled with silver leaves and a pool of water to reflect the light.

Other gardens include a water garden, a fragrance garden, a box garden and a purple garden.

Throughout the gardens there are lots of beautiful half-timber buildings which have been rescued by the owners from various stages of dereliction and moved to the gardens to be restored. The surrounding gardens provide the perfect setting for these picturesque buildings which have all been given a new lease of life.

Some, on the edges of the gardens, are gites that can be rented. Others which form part of the garden trail have been fitted out to show various ancient crafts and trades including a bakers, a forge, a shoemaker and an animal house.

All in all walking around is a treat whether in the small enclosed gardens or enjoying some of the bigger vistas visible from some parts of the garden.

Key plants include Viburnums, one of my favourite shrubs and a long alley of these includes Viburnum odoratissimum, Viburnum clylindricum and Viburnum plicatum "Shasta". A large pond is surrounded by a collection of grasses and cornus - good to see even in the winter - and a smaller water garden has been planted with a more tropical theme with bamboos and a Paulownia tomentosa tree taking the stage.

I always like to see an English-style mixed border and there is one here planted next to an attractive half-timber cottage. The planting contains many roses, hydrangeas and plants you would find in an English mixed border but also lots of agapanthus and gauras which are more often seen in French gardens.

If you have been inspired there is a plant shop selling many of the plants you can see in the garden.

There is also a creperie in one of the lovely renovated half-timber buildings. The creperie boasts 80 varieties of crepes and galettes.