A famous Texas gardener in front of the Louis XV wing at the edge of the English Garden

Jardin Anglais -- English Garden

French JARDIN ANGLAIS, type of garden that developed in 18th-century England, originating as a revolt against the architectural garden, which relied on rectilinear patterns, sculpture, and the unnatural shaping of trees. The revolutionary character of the English garden lay in the fact that, whereas gardens had formerly asserted man's control over nature, in the new style, man's work was regarded as most successful when it was indistinguishable from nature's. In the architectural garden the eye had been directed along artificial, linear vistas that implied man's continued control of the surrounding countryside, but in the English garden a more natural, irregular formality was achieved in landscapes consisting of expanses of grass, clumps of trees, and irregularly shaped bodies of water. --ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

With our usual impeccable timing, we arrived at the chateau about the time the palace closed for mid-day break; so we took a quick lunch ourselves and ventured into the back English Garden until we could get into the palace in the afternoon.

This spot has seen a succession of gardens culminating with the present around 1812 during Napoleon Bonaparte's reign but is, like Napoleon himself, a product of the 18th century. Today it contains sequoias and cypress trees planted during the Second Empire. The Garden layout begins at the Louis XV wing which its namesake built in 1739 after tearing down Francois I's earlier building. This wing now houses the Museum of Napoleon I (unfortunately closed for the afternoon during this non-tourist season).

Fountain, fountain Blue

We walked around the pond (next web page) and back into the garden to see the reason this was the favorite of kings, the spring (called Bliaud fountain). We found it (we think) in this unmarked site:

The fountain was not the king's favorite -- but they liked the game the fresh water attracted.

Here's a picture a little ways back showing some of the English-garden decoration around this spot. In the background is an obelisk marking the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau which surrounds most of the palace:

The guidebooks claim the fountain is octagonal so we may be completely off base on this. If so, the true fountain wasn't apparent. Here's another candidate for the elusive source:

Here's another fountain similar to that above showing the use of rocks in the English Garden:

Natural disasters

Like most wooded areas of France, this garden took some hits during the Christmas night Hurricane that ended the 2^nd millenium. Here's the birthday boy posing with some of the other dead wood:

55 isn't that old--for a tree!

Next we wandered back to the Carp pond which if you were French would call the "Etang Des Carpes." Please join us by clicking here.

Where do you want to go today? Here's a few choices:

Return to the index of our Fontainebleau site:

Pietrina and Dick's Home Page

Pietrina and Dick's Paris Index

Send these wanderers some

If you can't figure out your way out of this mess, search for something else on the Schmitt pages