Pavillon Frais Restoration

The garden of Le Pavillon Frais
near the Petit Trianon.
Photo: Versailles.

J'adore le treillage!  Yes, Bunny Williams' and John Rosselli's shop of course, but I am referring to the French term for architectural trellis-work, treillage.


Pavillon Frais with partial mock-ups
of the flanking arcades.
Photo: Versailles.

There is a small garden structure near the Petit Trianon at Versailles that is sometimes referred to as the Pavillon du Treillage because it was covered with trellis-work.  But the official website of the chateau refers to it as Pavillon Frais, so that name will be used here.  Both the building and the surrounding garden have recently undergone a very interesting restoration.


Drawing of Pavillon Frais dated December, 1751.
Image: Archives Nationales.

At the encouragement of Madame de Pompadour, King Louis XV settled at the Grand Trianon in 1749, away from the rigid court formality of the palace, and away from the courtiers who disapproved of her being the favorite of the king.  (Previously, the mistress of the king was of high noble birth, but Jeanne Antoinette Poisson who was given the title of Marquise by the king came from a non-aristocratic background, though she was particularly well-educated).  The royal architect Angel-Jacques Gabriel designed additional Trianon gardens and, in 1750, was asked to design a pavilion in the middle of a garden laid out in geometric beds, contrasting with the trend in English gardens for a more natural landscape.  Both the pavilion and the garden began to be known as "French" because of this new style.  A menagerie was added nearby, not for exotic animals, but for cows, chickens, and similar animals.  In 1751, another small pavilion designed by Gabriel was added consisting of a small dining room where the fresh products of the diary and vegetable gardens could be served;  this was known as the Pavillon Frais.



In this site plan, the Pavillon Frais is in the lower left corner
above the wording "Avenue".
The French pavilion is the shaped building above it.
Image: American Friends of Versailles.

The garden in front of the pavilion was surrounded by trellis-work creating a courtyard.  An arcade of trellis covered iron supports against a dense hedge flanked the pavilion, installed in July, 1752, at the same time as the trellis design covering the pavilion.


In this site plan detail, the Pavillon Frais
can be made out, backing up to the tree-lined avenue,
with the courtyard garden in front, above.
Image: Versailles.

The entrance to the garden consisted of lattice piers built around the trunks of lime trees pruned into the shape of spheres.  The main piers were like the pilasters of the pavilion and mounted with large wooden trellis urns.  Fifty-four smaller urns adorned the keystones of the archways of the arcades, each with an orange tree.  In 1756, statues of "Illness" and "Health" from the Antiques Room of the Louvre were placed on marble plinths at each end of the arcades.


This 1751 plan of Pavillon Frais by Gabriel has a reversed orientation
from the two previous garden plans,
with the northern direction towards the bottom.
Image:  Wikimedia.

The one room interior was primarily used for dining on pleasant spring and summer days, although there was a fireplace with a Languedoc marble chimneypiece.  The walls were painted boiserie decorated with carved floral garlands and inset sheets of mirrored glass.  The floor was a black & while marble checkerboard covered with a large Savonnerie carpet, commissioned in 1754 but not completed until 1760.  The furniture included two canapés and two fauteuils upholstered in green & white toile de perse, a chic but casual cotton fabric with a printed Persian floral design.  A later inventory also included sixteen assorted side chairs.


The interior of Pavillon Frais
as it appeared in 2013,
with representations of the boiserie.
Image: Wikimedia.

The pavilion was essentially destroyed in 1810, with only the foundation remaining, and the lattice courtyard enclosure was pulled down the next year.  Some restoration was begun in 1980, enabling the stone structure to be reconstructed, but more progress was realized when a support group, The American Friends of Versailles, took the project on.


The restored garden elevation of Pavillon Frais
by the office of the Chief Architect of Historic Monuments,
Pierre-Andre Lablaude.
Image:  the Facebook page of
The American Friends of Versailles.

Test pits and archaeological excavations found the original locations of the basins as well as fragments of their remains.


'Before' and 'After' views of Pavillon Frais
showing the restoration efforts of
The American Friends of Versailles.
Images: Facebook.

The fragments of the bottom of the basins revealed a mosaic design in marble that were reproduced in the restoration.


One of the pair of restored basins
in the garden of Pavillon Frais.
Image: Facebook.

The flanking arcades and courtyard enclosure have not been recreated, but a representation of how that would look is given with two flat theatrical mock-ups flanking the pavilion.


The back of the arcade mock-up
at the Pavillon Frais.
Image: Facebook.

The treillage on the building has been wonderfully restored, however, by the French company which specializes in such work, Tricotel.


The restored entrance doors of
Le Pavillon Frais.
Photo: Tricotel.



The original layout of treillage
was created for Pavillon Frais.
Photo: Tricotel.

With the success of the work so far, perhaps the recreation of the interior and the arcades will follow.  The American Friends of Versailles has also sponsored the restoration of the Trois Fontaines Bosquet and is dedicated to preserving interest in Versailles through seminars and educational exchanges as well as specific restoration projects at the palace and its gardens.


Le Pavillon Frais.
Photo: Tricotel.

Those more interested in plant material than garden structures will enjoy Elisabeth de Feudeau's book published in September, 2013, FROM MARIE ANTOINETTE'S GARDEN: AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY HORTICULTURAL ALBUM.  Based on archival documents, the book uses eighteenth-century illustrations to present the plants, flowers and trees loved for their beauty, scent, and herbal qualities.

A Visit to the Dowager Duchesse de Mouchy

The orangerie in the garden of the
dowager duchess de Mouchy.
Image:  French Garden Style.

A garden design class for architects way back during my university days continues to be a great influence in my work today.  In addition to studying the history of garden design, my class visited a number of private, truly remarkable gardens in the Ile-de-France region with the tour of each site led by the owner.  All the gardens were memorable, but none more so than the enchanting garden created by the dowager duchesse de Mouchy, Marie (de la Rouchefoucauld) de Noailles, as her country retreat about an hour outside of Paris.


Chateau Fleury.
Image:  Wikipedia.

After the death of her husband, in 1950 the dowager duchesse acquired the cottage adjacent to the 250 acre Fleury estate, next to the parish church of the village of Fleury-en-Biere, once the chapel of the chateau.  Her son lives in Chateau Fleury while another member of the family lives in the nearby Chateau de Courance;  we visited both in the class.  (For a relatively recent event at both to benefit the American Friends of Versailles, see the story in New York Social Diary here). 


The path from the herb garden to the pool
passes through a formal area with a
lawn decorated with geometric designs of
colored gravel and two yew obelisks.
Image:  French Garden Style.

The large garden surrounded by a high stone wall had long been neglected but the old magnolias and cedars gave evidence that the landscape had once been carefully considered.  It was thought to be the original potager (kitchen garden) for the chateau which dates from the sixteenth to eighteenth-century.  Although not as well known to the public as some other gardens in France, the garden of the dowager duchesse was the standard by which all others were measured, in some circles of residential garden design.


The Koelreuteria paniculata (golden rain tree)
with pale yellow blooms is outside the garden
 but visually brought inward with a gap
in the hedge filled with an iron fence.
Image:  French Garden Style.

Using the premise that each area of the garden was an outdoor room, the spaces followed various themes and functions.  A magnolia-filled Persian garden contained many unusual varieties, a very unique feature in France.  Another garden contained herbs and another area provided flowers especially grown to cut.


A wall of yews are clipped in the form
of buttresses define the herb garden
which also contains aromatic flowers
and foliage.  Note the unforgettable
topiary 'confessional' in the garden beyond.
Image:  French Garden Style.

As the dowager duchesse led us through garden, she might stop briefly and take clippers out of her pocket to snip an errant twig.  Design is crucial, but after all, it is maintenance that makes a garden legendary.


An arcade of trees trained on cables (1) and
a screen of pleached trees (3) provide garden
architecture.  A bench of stone slabs is backed
both a hedge of clipped yews and unclipped branches
to give contrast (4).  The tumbling naturalized
plantings against the cottage are in the English style,
in contrast to the topiaries bordering the terrace (2).
Images:  Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

The immediate area outside the cottage comes to a horticultural climax with a life-size sentry box or confessional and a row of enormous fleur de lis topiaries.


The duchesse's 'confessional' carved from
Thuja plicata 'Atrovirens' (giant arborvitae).
Image:  Derry Moore.

The cottage, and that term is relative, is just as charming as the garden.  Like the garden, it carried the dowager duchesse's personal touch.  She said that many of the furnishings had come from her family but she had bought some things at the flea market.


The fleur de lis topiaries on the terrace
at the entrance to the house.
Image:  Derry Moore.

The space known as the Servants' Hall provided a cool, welcome transition from the garden.  It served as a casual reception room.


The Servants' Hall.
Image:  Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

The adjacent room which also opens onto the terrace is the dowager duchesse's dining room which also served as a casual sitting room.  One of the distinctive features of this room is the tapestry wallcovering, hanging but not fully attached to let the stone walls 'breathe.'

The Dining Room.
Image:  Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

A slightly more formal sitting room follows in progression, the tone of the room set by the eighteenth-century paneling.


The folding screen illustrates the 17th century
poem Le Lutrin by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux.
Photo by Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

The use of miniatures adds to intimate character of the Sitting Room.



Another view of the Sitting Room.
Image:  Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

A guest bedroom with papered walls and a papered dado of an architectural paneling design displays colored engravings of gardens.


A guest bedroom with a chimneypiece
and hearth of rouge royale marble.
Image:  Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

Another bedroom, with rich red walls, is filled with photos and drawings of family members and other personal mementos.


A bedroom having a view from the bed
to the garden below.
Photo:  Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

The Duchesse acknowledged getting advice from her brother-in-law, the Vicomte de Noailles (whose exemplary garden was also visited and will be featured in a future post), and her Danish cousin Mogen Tvede, a landscape designer.  But she clearly developed her own taste and skills to become an incomparable gardener in her own right.  The Duchesse de Mouchy died in 1982, and it has been said that her beloved garden, though briefly in a period of decline, is now maintained as a tribute to her remarkable spirit and talent.


A park-like section of the garden.
Photo:  Derry Moore for Architectural Digest.

The photos noted as being from Architectural Digest were published in the June, 1982, issue of the magazine.  The additional images here by the photographer Derry Moore appear on his own website.  The other photos are from FRENCH GARDEN STYLE, now out-of-print but used copies may be purchased through The Devoted Classicist Library.

Ben and Libby Page's Country Place

A Muskogee crape myrtle in the main garden.
Photo:  William Waldron for Elle Decor.

The Devoted Classicist's friends of over 25 years, Ben and Libby Page are one of Nashville's most charming couples.  Devoted Readers might remember them being mentioned here before;   Ben is the founding partner of Page / Duke Landscape Architects and Libby is a much sought-after events planner.  Their weekend place in the country is featured in the current issue of "Elle Decor" magazine.

The vernacular Greek Revival house dates from about 1845.
Photo:  William Waldron for Elle Decor.

The article is written by one of my favorite authors, Julia Reed, an acquaintance with many mutual friends, with photographs by William Waldron.  The story is told of how Libby's mother helped them find the Giles County, Tennessee, property in 2004.  Coincidently, it is less than a mile from where Libby's grandmother had grown up.

A contemporary sculpture by Carroll Todd
is surrounded by a clipped beech edge.
The 1945 barn had been built for polo ponys.
Photo:  William Waldron for Elle Decor.

Although only about an hour from their home in the Richland district of Nashville, the Pages enjoy the change of scenery and lifestyle of their weekend get-away.

The Menagerie, Part III

This is the third of a series of posts of The Devoted Classicist on the 18th century folly known as the Menagerie;  the first can be seen here and the second, here.  This essay reveals the garden and the auxiliary buildings as they appeared in the sales brochure by Estate Agents Jackson-Stops & Staff.

Arial view of the Menagerie and gardens.

Gervase Jackson-Stops bought the decepit folly in 1973 and planted the three allees in 1984.  Vernon Russell-Smith designed the rose garden in 1989.  With his partner Ian Kirby, Gervase further developed the gardens in 1992 and the implementation of the master plan continued with subsequent owners.

The east garden at the Menagerie.

A walled Kitchen Garden was added 2004-5, designed by one of Britain's most highly regarded landscape designers Jinny Blom.  Espaliered fruit trees line the walls that surround the garden filled with boxwood-edged parterres.  A central fountain in a fish basin is ringed by arched hoops covered in wisteria.

The fountain in the Kitchen Garden.

Two of the original ponds were re-dug at the ends of the side allees and each was given an arbour that was later developed into a thatched cottage designed by Charles Morris.  One pond is a water garden filled with native plants and the other, exotic.

The Gothick Arbour and water garden.

The Classical Arbour has Doric columns on one elevation and log columns on another.  The interior of the main space has a dome and was used as a chapel at the time of the photograph.  Also, there are two alcoves, one with a sink.

The interior of the Classical Arbour, used as a chapel.

The Gothick Arbour is more formal on one facade and more rustic on the other.  There is a built-in bed decorated with fir cones.  Used as a guest house, there is a lavatory, w.c., shower, and dressing room.

The Gothick Arbour guest house, interior.

The Gothick Arbour at the Menagerie.

Two timber buildings flank the gates to the Nursery Garden;  one was used as a Tea Room with serving counter and sink and the other was a Garden Store.  There is an aluminum green house and a Garden Office consisting of one large room with a central woodburning stove;  one of the two porches has been enclosed to provide a kitchen as well as a w.c and shower.

The Garden Office at the Menagerie.

A Garage has a Workshop and a Utility Room with a central heating boiler, deep Belfast sink, and plumbing for a washer and dryer.

All the photos are from the Jackson-Stops & Staff sales brochure that was thoughtfully provided by devoted reader Tom Barton of Dixie Graphics architectural signage.  Today some feel inclined to put a minimum size on properties to qualify as an "estate".  This is a good example of planning on only four acres.

Nancy McCabe: The Garden Designer's Own Garden

Vintage rubard forcers of terra-cotta
can also be used to protect other tender plants in the Spring.

Many outside the Northwest Corner of Connecticut as well as the adjacent Massachusetts and New York state may not be familiar with the work of garden designer, Nancy McCabe, but she has been the creative factor behind some of the most outstanding gardens in that area for over thirty years.  She is great friends with near-neighbor Bunny Williams, whose garden was featured here, and an influence of each can be seen in the gardens of both of them.

Nancy McCabe with her sons,
Sievert, then 5, and Wesley, 8.

When The Devoted Classicist first visited the Lakeville area, snow covered the ground all winter.  Although this can be a shock to a Southerner, the blanket of snow provided protection against damaging winds.  Global Warming has changed this, however, and now there are shrubs, especially, that are no longer suitable for the climate of the area.

The plan of Nancy McCable's garden in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

Nancy McCabe's garden has continued to develop over time, of course, but these photos (uncredited) from the June, 1989, issue of House Beautiful magazine, also date from a time when this writer was visiting the garden while working on a number of projects in the area.

A view of the left-hand side of the sunken garden.

The right-hand side of the sunken garden.

The new greenhouse was constructed in the traditional manner of vintage panes of glass.
This is the muntinless method of glazing, often mistakeningly called the mullionless method.

A collection of glass cloches line the potting shelf
and small pots and vintage nozzles line the narrow shelves flanking the door.

Nancy is known for her extensive use of planted containers.

Garden tools in the shed.

Nancy had been gardening as a hobby since she was ten years old and came to be noticed when she planted the area outside her husband Mike's bookstore in Salisbury, Connecticut, (now closed).  At the time, interior designer John Saladino had just purchased the handsome but neglected 20 acre estate in Norfolk, known as Robin Hill, and he asked for her help in creating new gardens;  when it was published, calls began coming in from others to enlist her help.  In addition, Saladino and Bunny Williams have recommended her for commissions. 

This and other private gardens in Litchfield County are sometimes open to the public to benefit The Garden Conservancy.  At present, the list for the 2012 participating gardens is still being put together, but watch the Open Days Program website for the announcement for sites nationwide.