An unassuming wooden sign on a country lane an hour north of Tours belies the spectacular garden that it points towards. It is only as you walk through a simple trellis gate into a narrow passage that you get the first indication something special is about to happen. Its walls are lined with chestnut logs stacked two metres high, topped with a blanket of vine twigs. Underfoot, log sections are set on end, creating an uneven surface that obliges visitors to slow their pace for what lies beyond.
As you enter the garden proper, it is the house that first draws your attention – the beautiful, imposing old priory Le Prieuré de Vauboin, which dates back to the 17th century. Second, is the overwhelming sense of peace – due, no doubt, to the silence as well as the feeling of being encircled by greenery, including lawns, vines, dramatic gunnera leaves and, most of all, neatly clipped box interspersed only by stone, brick and cinder paths.
Thierry Juge, who formerly lived in Paris, bought the house in January. ‘The building was pretty much a ruin, with no running water or electricity,’ he recalls. ‘The old lady who lived here previously collected water from the spring in the garden.’ Despite having no prior experience and never having read a gardening book, he started to make a garden in the half hectare of rough paddock round the building. His aim was to create a medieval-style hortus conclusus, with box topiary that provides year-round structure and interest. It was also important for him to make it a spiritual place, a reproduction of Paradise. ‘It was to be the symbol of a perfect life in God enclosed in order to escape the torments and temptations of the world,’ explains Thierry on the garden’s website.
He began by building the boundary wall of chestnut logs and these form a charming backdrop as well as a refuge for wildlife. As you look out from the front door of the house, a large stepping stone crosses a small spring-fed stream into the garden. Formal parterres and topiary divide the space. There is an enclosed seating area, an orchard of cherry trees with box balls like giant marbles set on the diagonal under them, and a neat box-edged potager. A labyrinth, adjacent to the orchard, is dedicated to meditation and contemplations. Thierry calls it the ‘spiritual heart of the garden’.
