PowerPoint Presentation

FRENCH GARDENS

PRESENTED BY :NIDHI JINDALB.ARCH5TH SEMA51204011010

GLOSSARY OF FRENCH GARDENSParterre. A planting bed, usually square or rectangular, containing an ornamental design made with low closely clipped hedges, colored gravel, and sometimes flowers. Parterres were usually laid out in geometric patterns, divided by gravel paths. They were intended seen from above from a house or terrace. A parterre de gazon was made of turf with a pattern cut out and filled with gravel.[9]Broderie (eng: Embroidery) A very curling decorative pattern within a parterre, created with trimmed yew or box or made by cutting the pattern out of a lawn and filling it with colored gravel.Bosquet. A small group of trees, usually some distance from the house, designed as an ornamental backdrop.Alle. A straight path, often lined with trees.Topiary. Trees or bushes trimmed into ornamental shapes. In French gardens, they were usually trimmed into geometric shapes.Patte d'Oie. (Eng: Goose foot). Three or five paths or alles which spread outward from a single point.PRINCIPLES OF FRENCH GARDEN DESIGNA geometric plan using the most recent discoveries of perspective and optics.

A terrace overlooking the garden, allowing the visitor to see all at once the entire garden. As the French landscape architect Olivier de Serres wrote in 1600, "It is desirable that the gardens should be seen from above, either from the walls, or from terraces raised above the parterres.

All vegetation is constrained and directed, to demonstrate the mastery of man over nature.[Trees are planted in straight lines, and carefully trimmed, and their tops are trimmed at a set height.

The residence serves as the central point of the garden, and its central ornament. No trees are planted close to the house; rather, the house is set apart by low parterres and trimmed bushes.A central axis, or perspective, perpendicular to the facade of the house, on the side opposite the front entrance. The axis extends either all the way to the horizon (Versailles) or to piece of statuary or architecture (Vaux-le-Vicomte). The axis faces either South (Vaux-le-Vicomte, Meudon) or east-west (Tuileries, Clagny, Trianon, Sceaux). The principal axis is composed of a lawn, or a basin of water, bordered by trees. The principal axis is crossed by one or more perpendicular perspectives and alleys.

VAUX-LE-VICOMTE A FREANCH ESTATE IN 18TH CENTUARY

The most elaborate parterres, or planting beds, in the shape of squares, ovals, circles or scrolls, are placed in a regular and geometric order close to the house, to complement the architecture and to be seen from above from the reception rooms of the house

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The parterres near the residence are filled with embroideries, designs created with low boxwood to resemble the patterns of a carpet, and given a polychrome effect by plantings of flowers, or by colored brick, gravel or sand.

Farther from the house, the embroideries are replaced with simpler parterres, filled with grass, and often containing fountains or basins of water. Beyond these, small carefully created groves of trees serve as an intermediary between the formal garden and the masses of trees of the park. "The perfect place for a stroll, these spaces present alleys, stars, circles, theaters of greenery, galleries, spaces for balls and for festivities."

Bodies of water (canals, basins) serve as mirrors, doubling the size of the house or the trees.

The garden is animated with pieces of sculpture, usually on mythological themes, which either underline or punctuate the perspectives, and mark the intersections of the axes, and by moving water in the form of cascades and fountains.

PALACE OF VERSAILLESThe Gardens of Versailles occupy part of what was once the Domaine royal de Versailles, the royal demesne of the chteau of Versailles. Situated to the west of the palace, the gardens cover some 800 hectacres of land, much of which is landscaped in the classic French Garden style perfected.

The palace and the gardens are both seminal examples of Baroque design which includes features such as parterres, buildings on axes, focal points within gardens and integration with the surrounding landscape. Versailles consists of a central axis with a series of cross axes which creates the framework for the layout of the highly organized palace and garden. The palace creates one of the cross axes off of the central axis. The other cross axes created the framework for geometric designs within the landscape most of which had a focal point or central feature.Significance

Versailles was a statement of French royal power and control, however, the design influenced garden design and city planning first in Europe and stretched across the globe. The axis and cross axis configuration extended to and organized the town of Versailles . The axial design was implemented in Paris after the attempted revolution in 1848. The axial design made it harder for the rebellious citizens of Paris to create blockades used in revolutions. The axes and cross axes design which formed grids can be seen around the world today in city and town planning.

PLAN OF PALACE OF VERSAILLES