At the Château de la Ballue, in Ille-et-Vilaine, the gardeners of the château practice topiary art, the art of giving shape to trees and shrubs. To succeed, you have to have a good scissors and you can create wonders.
Legend has it that Victor Hugo, Balzac or Chateaubriand succumbed in their time to the charms of the 17th century castle of Bazouges-La-Pérouse (Ille-et-Vilaine) and its gardens listed as historical monuments. For two years, Kévin Spassevitch, a gardener by profession, has been practicing plant sculpture. “It’s very technical. (…) There is no school, it is a transmission of knowledge from gardener to gardener”, he said. In spirals, fountains or cubes, until they become veritable labyrinths, the castle gardens are home to more than 1,500 shrubs of multiple varieties.
Thousands of visitors from all over Europe
“What is unique here is the variety, the quality, the density of the topiary in a relatively small space”, explains Alain Mathon, owner of the castle and gardens of La Ballue. Cut two to three times a year, some date back to the creation of the gardens in 1975. And this open-air spectacle is a success and attracts many visitors each year. Renowned throughout Europe, the gardens of La Ballue attract several thousand visitors each year.
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