 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Office deTourisme
Place du Gl de Gaulle 06360 Eze France Tel : 33 (0) 4 93 41 26 00 Fax : 33 (0) 4 93 41 04 80 
 |
 |
||||
|
|
Le
Jardin d'Eze
|
|
|
Eze,
exotic garden
|
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Subjects itinerary, artistic, botanical, panorama The Jardin d'Eze, known in the past as the exotic garden offers a range of attractions to discover plants, history and traditions of Eze... ... A Garden to live |
 |
| The ruins of the Castle of Eze |
|
The
history of the village and the castle are closely linked.
Since the age of iron many populations followed one
another in Eze. |
 |
|
In
1706, during the war of succession of Spain, Louis
the XIV ordered the destruction of the castle on the
recommendations of the Minister for the war :
" Sir, the King having seen the strategic situation
of the castle, between Villefranche and Monaco, His
Majesty the King gave me the order to destroy this
castle, in order to be able to preserve this communication
".
At the " Belle Epoque ", the first tourists enjoy the sight and the charm, some trees grow up even on the top. A refreshment bar offer a drink after the ascent in the village. |
 |
| The Exotic Garden |
|
After
WWII, a group of men take on their back some bags
filled with ground and carry stones towards the ruins
of the castle where some sections of wall still remain.
It is there that René Gianton, the mayor of
the time, with the assistance of Jean Gastaud founder
of Monaco Exotic garden, decided to create an exotic
garden.
The site is well sheltered from winds of north by the Revere Mount and its declivity ensures an effective drainage. The question is to establish here plants adapted to dryness : cactus, agaves, aloes… On the old pictures of the past, you have some mother in law cushion (echinocatus grusonii), some are still in their pot, with euphorbiums. A true challenge and bet on the future. In front of the success of such an initiative this first phase of installation was followed soon by a second one. |
 |
|
|
 |
| Panorama |
|
"I
learned that from the sun, when it goes down, it pours
then in the sea, the gold of inexhaustible richnesses".
Appealed by the panorama from the ruins of the castle,
Frederic Nieztsche wrote
the most famous pages of "Thus spoke Zarathoustra",
dreaming up the qualifier to define the quality of
blue he saw this winter of 1883.
It extends from Italy to Saint-Tropez, the winter in clear weather, Corsica is discerned. A panoramic table in enamelled lava help the visitor to locate the principal places. |
 |
|
Immediately
in the east, with the rock called " the Dog's
head " in the background, a beautiful property
draws the attention with its gardens in terraces and
its paths bordered of cypresses that growed again
since the fire of 1986. It is the Balsan castle. The
film director Alfred Hitchcock has shoot a scene of
his film "To catch a thief " with Grace
Kelly and Gary Grant in this property.
|
 |
|
The
Balsan Castle was built by the famous landscape designer
Achille Duchêne in 1921 at Jacques
Balsan disposal. According to the newspaper the"
Illustration", J Balsan enjoyed to evoke constructions
of the time Franciscan. "Lou Seuil", as
it was called in the beginning, is indeed conceived
like a monastery, with its cloister used as winter
garden, its bell-tower and its chapel.
|
 |
|
Among
the roofs of the village, we see the small bell-tower
of the white penitent chapel and especially the old
residence of prince William
of Sweden with its terrace overhanging the Mediterranean.
It is a luxury hotel today. In
the sea side, the small resort of Eze with its
villa of the beginning of the XXe century, became
the holiday place of several celebrities,
Princess Antoinette, sister of Prince Rainier of Monaco
or the singer of the group U2 to quote only them.
|
 |
|
The
cape Ferrat with the Saint Hospice foreland was chosen
by Beatrice Ephrussi of Rothsild to build her villa.
Her villa is situated at the beginning of the cape
with pink walls. On the other side, there is the roadstead
of Villefranche-sur-mer, stopover privileged of the
steamers of cruising during their passage on the Riviera.
Then, we clearly see the tracks of Nice airport in front the cape of Antibes, farther the mounts of Esterel and cape Camarat close to Saint-Tropez at approximately 120 km. |
 |
| Contemplative spaces | ||
|
Below
the ruins of the castle, a contemplative space receives
the visitor to appreciate the panorama but also to
dream and escape. Modern version of the medieval enclosure
where people need to be alone for a few moments in
the daily life.
Constitued of a terrace overhanging the sea with some ergonomic seats in teck. This place, slightly outside the alleys, allows to retire, in order to impregnate atmosphere of the place. |
 |
|
|
Point of view,
the contempaltive space by its privacy also encourages
to relax, read, dream. It evokes also some old public
parks where everybody meet for a moment of peace. |
 |
|
| Earth Goddesses | ||
|
Starting
a dialogue with the vegetable world and the horizon,
the paths are scattered by the sculptures in soil
of Jean-Philippe Richard.
These women, these "soil Goddesses" to the silhouette tapered, mysterious are descendant from Isis the Phoenicians venerated in these places, at the same time modest and sensual are offered at the meditation of passers by. |
 |
|
|
Women with streamlined
silhouette, their styl evokes the graphics of the
fashion designers but also the fascinating aspects
of works of the Belgian Symbolists at the end of
the XIXth century. |
 |
|
| Subject course | ||
|
To
immerse oneself in a place, to get to know with the
area, to know the way of life of its inhabitants,
their history, the subject course allows to each visitor
to discover the memory of Eze and its neighbourhoods
at its rythm.
This course includes 20 blingual slab (F/GB) in enamelled lava illustrated with old documents, pictures and unpublished sights pf artists. |
 |
|
|
From Iron
age to the shooting of TV series like " the
persuaders", the greats moments of the history
of Eze are recalled as the years go by. History
of the events, history of the famous hosts, history
of the place... |
 |
|
| Exotic plants | ||
|
A
plant is known as succulent when it keeps the water
to resist to dryness. If the Jardin d'Eze has numerous
succulents arrivals from Africa or America adapted
to the arid climate, it exist also some succulent
plants growing in other places, aroud the Mediterranean
or in tropical forest. The stocking to be exectued
in the plump parts or fibrous, the leaves and the
stems particulary.
|
 |
|
|
This plants developed
strategies to limit evaporation : sleek skin sometimes
recovered with polish, pilosity, thorn in the place
of the leaves. The nature and the evolution faced
with climatic contraints comparable in various points
of the sphere, bring differents answers, sometimes
which it is difficult to distinguish the species. |
 |
|
Fighiera (Charles-Alexandre), Eze, Nice, éditions Serre, 2000, 448 p.
Flament (Albert), "Une belle demeure fleurie", l'Illustration, n°4648, 2 avril 1932.
Le Tiec (Patrick), Le Jardin exotique d'Eze, Monaco, Graphic Service, 2000, 48 p.
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/lelotusdeze/
