French Gardens: A Guide

by Barbara Abbs

Organized by region, this guide to the public and private gardens of France is keyed to the Michelin Road Atlas for ease of use and provides essential information for each garden: directions,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898310415
• ISBN13: 9780898310412
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Sagapress
• Length: 173 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.7" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A brief, opinionated, survey

I bought this book to help plan a trip to Paris, so I have only looked at the section dealing with that part of the country.Each garden is covered in a paragraph or two, a page a most. There are few photographs. I believe the listing is fairly complete, at least compared with the other books I have looked at. With 165 pages there are probably 300-350 gardens.In my opinion many travel guides are rendered useless by making flat, objective comments about everything, so that you can't get a sense of what is really good vs. what is not. This book isn't like that. Here are a few short quotes:Parc Andre Citroen: "Not to be missed".Jardin des Plantes: "... but anyone expecting a garden comparable to Kew will be dissappointed"Fontainbleau (one section): "This is the largest parterre he [Le Notre] designed but today, without its patterning of clipped box, it is uninteresting"This is not a coffee table guide. If you are going to France, and want to visit a few gardens, it is a useful reference.For more photographs and description I prefer the "Garden Lover's Guide to France".