The Gardener of Versailles: Book Review
Have you been wondering whether The Gardener of Versailles is the next book to join your library? Well, I’ve finished it at last and loved it and if you are interested in history, gardens, France or enjoy and appreciate reading about other people’s life achievements, you’ll love it too.
Alain Baraton’s insider view and personal recount as head gardener of the garden of Versailles just outside of Paris reveals a different side of this World Heritage listed site.
Charming … Mr Baraton is delightful when describing his daily routines – he talks to his trees and has pet names for many of them – Wall Street Journal
Simply but thoroughly, the author narrates the history of Versailles. He writes poetically about the beautiful power of the grounds he tends. The descriptions of the various sites on the grounds could only come from a man fortunate enough to have lived on and loved the site for almost 40 years – Kirkus Reviews
Alain Baraton, The Gardener of Versailles
This is a very gentle and informative story from Alain Baraton who is truly passionate about gardening and the history and the future prospect of ‘his’ internationally renowned garden, Versailles. The garden of Versailles comes to life with its own soul through Alain’s storytelling with the ancient trees, hedges and newer plantings being the family of the gardener.
He reveals that he doesn’t feel his calling was originally as a gardener, but it has become his life and due to this passion and living within the grounds of the garden, his job and life now are fused into one. In his office with its broad bank of windows he gazes out on his garden and feels as if he is continually on the lookout for its welfare.
He always has his eye on things and with spending less time actually gardening now, he feels his days are spent more like a CEO. His schedule includes preparing designs, orchestrating plantings, administering staff and managing a budget of many hundreds of thousands of euros. It’s interesting to read about his daily schedule which he describes as being broken up into three main segments.
Mornings in the Garden of Versailles
Keeping himself informed is essential so his day starts with a morning walk around the garden starting by chatting with the gardeners at the greenhouses, then back to the office for reading consultant’s reports, completing paperwork including on hiring staff, purchases and very importantly, for funding of future garden projects.
Afternoons in the Garden of Versailles
Afternoons are spent checking on various ongoing projects usually on site around the garden. Planning the garden layout for the next season and often the next year is usually done in consultation with his colleagues in the afternoon.
There is also always something to repair, fix or replace with the health of the garden depending on all these essential activities.
Evenings in the Garden of Versailles
An evening walk around the gardens with his German shepherd brings him back to his apartment late in the evening. With the little spare time he has of an evening, Alain Baraton continues to work on his writing while keeping a watchful eye on his sleeping and dark garden.
The author tells us of when storms in 1999 devastated the garden he felt the pain personally and grieved the loss of many of his trees. Even regular visitors to the garden took the damage and destruction of the garden to heart with one lady touring the garden dressed in mourning black.
We have Alain to thank for campaigning to make the park a pedestrian zone with the banning of cars. This has helped make the park cleaner and safer for tourists and wildlife. So when visiting the gardens now, tourists have the option to hire carts to explore this vast park.
If you have ever visited this garden (as do about 3 million others per year) you probably had to rush through to see as much as you could. One way of immersing yourself into the magic of Versailles is to stay at the Waldorf Astoria Trianon Palace Hotel. As the Hotel is only minutes away from the garden you can stay till garden closing time and return early the following day.
About Alain Baraton
Alain has been the Gardener in Chief of the park of the Palace of Versailles since 1982. He is the author of many books and a regular presenter on gardening programs on French radio and television. The Gardener of Versailles is the first of his books to be translated into English, and it has now exposed the magic of the garden of Versailles to a global audience and for that I’m very grateful because it makes visiting the garden all that more special.
