Plan now for your Ile-de-France garden visit

More than 110 gardens in Ile-de-France will be open over the last weekend of this month as a way to show that France’s most urban region also has plenty of green areas.

With the theme of the potager cottage garden, Jardins ouverts frm September 30 to October 1 will range from the Potager du Roi at the Chateau de Versailles to jardins ouvriers (like allotments) and up to roof gardens such as the Galéries Lafayette Haussmann.

Ile-de-France is nearly 80% woods and farmland with 5,000 farms and working gardens giving 12,000 jobs and output worth €1billion.

The four regional natural parks are also open at Haute Vallée de Chevreuse (Château de la Madeleine, Bullion...), the Gâtinais français (Fontainebleau, Barbizon, Étampes...), Oise-Pays de France (Chantilly forest, Royaumont Abbey...) and Vexin Français (Auvers-sur-Oise, La Roche-Guyon, Château de Villarceaux...) – plus the 35 Natura 2000 sites.

A full list is on the Ile-de-France region website (in French) as well as an ABC of garden terms that reveals much of French has roots in the garden and the farm.