The ad read: “Old property, including house, dairy, dovecote, granary, pond.”
“I went immediately to see it,” recalls ophthalmologist Dr. Henri Cassoly, who was living in Paris but eager to move closer to his practice in the old town of Creil, some 20 miles north.
“And it was a coup de foudre–like a lightning bolt.” The 3 overgrown acres that captivated him on that cold, foggy morning 20 years ago had been part of the vast holdings of the nearby Chateau de Verderonne. “Right away, I saw what it could become. I couldn’t wait to start planting.”
Cassoly had cultivated a garden at his family home in Cannes since the age of 7. “But at Verderonne, I met my destiny,” he says. Little by little, with passion and a firm sense of design, he added beauty upon beauty, even though it meant forgoing for a time the restoration of his small house, once the old dairy.
From room to room
Today, the gardens are a vivid dream of spring, from the splendid swath of rare irises to the impossibly lush swags of wisteria crowning the old wrought-iron gates.
At first you are dazzled by the landscape as a whole–the perspectives, the play of colors, the vistas of water and greenery, the luminous open spaces. Then, slowly, as you stroll along the pebbled pathways, the distinct gardens reveal themselves more intimately, each with its own personality and composition.
Finally the path will lead you to the pond, surrounded by graceful weeping willows, hornbeams and euphorbias, and filled with water lilies worthy of Monet, whose home in Giverny is only a short drive west.
Follow the architecture
“The architecture and the landscape guided me completely,” says Cassoly. “The ancient structures, the waters of the pond and pool, the lawns and wooded space that link them–all those were a canvas I tried to fill with a living harmony of colors, shapes and textures.”
Verderonne’s gardens are particularly gorgeous in the spring, but their personality charms throughout the year. Dahlias, phlox, poppies and a riot of annuals come into their own in midsummer, while asters usher in the autumn, followed by the brilliant reds, oranges and purples of the ivy and the surrounding oaks, beeches and hornbeams. In winter, the boxwoods and other evergreens stand forth.
Cassoly’s property is one of France’s classified historic treasures, open to visitors from 1:30 to 7 p.m. on weekends May through September.
———-
For more information, write Chateau de Verderonne, 9 rue de Chateau 60140, Verderonne 60140, France.
