Tulips, beauties of the fields
A little air of Holland floats in
Haute-Provence
.
From Manosque to Forcalquier, hundreds of thousands of tulips cover the fields with their multicolored dresses.
Roses, reds, yellows, mauves, violets… Fireworks that delight photographers.
These tulips are cultivated for their bulbs (these are exported to the Netherlands as soon as they reach their "adult" size).
Same spectacle
near
Jonquières
, near Orange (Vaucluse) but also at the tip of the Torche, in
Bigouden country
(Finistère)!
It is not forbidden to stop near the fields to immortalize the show ...
In a more opulent register, the castles of the Loire Valley compete in imagination to enhance their gardens.
At the
Château de Cheverny
, 350,000 Triumph tulip bulbs form a ribbon which in the park is 250 m long.
A natural work of art, which ends in the water feature of the castle park (open from April 3).
The tulip is also the queen of
the Chaumont-sur-Loire estate
(opening scheduled for April).
Each spring, a river of tulips makes a superb wave at the foot of the Renaissance towers.
Note, the International Garden Festival of Chaumont will be held from April 22 to November 7, on the theme of biomimicry.
The tulip is the queen of the Chaumont-sur-Loire estate.
Eric Sander / Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire
Read also: Immersion at the Keukenhof, the Dutch tulip paradise
Hyacinth, the call of the forest
We call it blue lily of the valley, blueberry, cuckoo, swift… At the beginning of April, the blue hyacinth blooms in the undergrowth, where it unfolds in beautiful lavender blue carpets.
The flower can be recognized by its small dangling bells.
Impossible to miss it in the beech and oak groves, mainly in the north, west and center of France.
In Saint-Jans-Cappel, in the mountains of Flanders (North), a
Hyacinth Trail
pays homage to Marguerite Yourcenar, a great lover of this flower.
Ile-de-France residents will find their happiness in the forest of
Fontainebleau
,
Rambouillet
or
Compiègne
.
The Pyrenean hyacinth will delight walkers in the
Pyrenean foothills
.
From the Basque Country to the Col de Jau (Aude), we find these same bluish carpets on the edge of the forest… With the difference that the Pyrenean hyacinth comes in the form of upright clusters, with larger foliage.
It blooms early at the bottom of a forest valley, later in the mountains (up to 1700 m altitude).
The beech groves of the Ossau or Campan valleys are good spots to observe them.
Daffodils and daffodils
At the end of May, millions of daffodils covering the hay meadows with a white coat.
Gonzalo diaz
Golden meadows from mid-April!
In Auvergne, in the lowlands around the
Puy de Sancy
, on the large volcanic plateau of
Cézallier
and even on the slopes of
Mont Mézenc
flourish the daffodils just emerging from the earth.
In the high-altitude pastures, these pale-hearted golden stars grow a little before the daffodils, cousins of the Amaryllidaceae family whose white flowers perfume the air with delicious scents.
These two flowers are also picked to be used in perfumery.
A veritable botanical garden suspended in the sky at an altitude of 1100-1400 meters,
the Aubrac plateau
will soon take on the air of an earthly paradise.
The blooms, although late, are spectacular.
Daffodils get the ball rolling in April, closely followed by millions of daffodils that cover the hay meadows with a white coat (at the end of May when the cows rise in summer).
Then come the cohorts of orchids (about twenty species), the pulsatile anemones, the two-leaved scilla, the cottongrass and the large yellow gentians which raise their large stems.
Nice poppies
They are scattered all over France, with their pretty bright red leaves so fragile.
In mid-April, the
south of the
Luberon
is covered with scarlet fields.
You have to walk between the Tour d'Aigues, Cucuron, Mirabeau and Ansouis to come across one of these fallow lands where the small wild poppy grows in freedom.
It is also found in fields of wheat and spelled where the chemistry is little involved.
Mirabelliers in bloom
During April, the emblematic fruit tree of Lorraine is in bloom.
Adobe Stock / Estelle R
Japan celebrates its cherry blossoms, Lorraine its mirabelliers!
During April, the iconic fruit tree is in bloom.
On the
Côtes de Meuse
, orchards are covered with thousands of delicate white flowers.
From Buxières-sous-les-Côtes to Hattonchâtel, a huge white wave emerges on the hillsides.
A sublime spectacle that lasts only a few days, between the end of April and the beginning of May.
Departing from Saint-Maurice-sous-les-Côtes, a 20 km walk between vineyards and orchards allows you to witness this flowering worthy of the Japanese hanami.
Another option: stand at the top of the hill of Sion, south of Nancy, to enjoy the panorama.
Sweetheart let see if the Rose…
From May, the Centifolia rose, the emblematic flower of Grasse, perfumes the hills of the Grasse region.
Unfortunately, the plots are private and difficult to access.
Fortunately, the gardens of
the International Perfume Museum in Grasse
(open from March 27) allow you to admire and smell their perfume.
Iris (other scent flowers) and adorable wildflowers (California poppy, wild mustard, borage) are mixed with it, not to mention prunus and cherry blossoms.
In Île-de-France,
the Val-de-Marne rose garden
, in L'Haÿ-les-Roses, reopens its doors on May 1.
The first rose garden in the world (1899) allows you to breathe in the scents of more than 11,000 rose bushes, from 2,900 different species and varieties: wild rosehips, hawthorns, gallic roses, two-tone nasturtium, Chinese tea roses, Oriental roses, etc.
Around the reflecting pool, the rosebushes form veritable colorful and fragrant colonnades.
Parisians will go to
Bagatelle Park
, dotted with hyacinths, Siberian scilles, daffodils, tulips, while waiting for the flowering of the roses which make it the most beautiful rose garden in Paris.
