LES JARDINS DE FRANCE

A vast historical study of gardens in France, from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Jean Vassort considers the “garden object” starting in the Middle Ages and throughout the whole of French society. Whether rural or urban, popular or aristocratic, utilitarian or ornamental, religious or scientific, designed for respite or ostentation, the garden has always occupied a prominent place in Western civilization, and particularly in France.

Between nature and culture, the history of the garden intersects with that of the economy, religion, art and politics, and continues to meet the most diverse aims of society, from the entirely material to the utterly symbolic. Long considered a reflection of the lost paradise, it evidently embodies today the aspiration for renewed contact with nature. So closely related to people's lives, the garden is a revelation of a society set in a particular era.

JEAN VASSORT is the author of Une société provinciale face à son devenir: le Vendômois au XVIIIe et XIXe siècles (A provincial society facing its future: the Vendômois in the 18th and 19th centuries) (Sorbonne Editions) and Les châteaux de la Loire au fil des siècles. Art, politique et société (The castles of the Loire down through the centuries. Art, politics and society) (Perrin, 2012).