Les Jardins du Mont des Récollets

Emmanuel de Quillacq spent most of his childhood moving all over France. After studying landscape design at the 'Ecole du Paysage' in Versailles (the school grounds are located on the site of Louis the XIV's famous potager), he felt a deep need to find his roots and decided in 1990 to move into his grandparents' farm in French Flanders, a stone's throw form the Belgian border, between Dunkirk and Lille. The house was in a derelict state and the grounds bare of any trees, apart from a walnut tree and a couple of willows. A long period renovating the inside and clearing the rubble outside started, the 'wheelbarrow years' as Emmanuel likes to call them. Finally, he was able to start thinking about creating his 'Flemish Garden', focusing on a depiction of this beloved land and its inhabitants. Inspired by Renaissance paintings, especially from Bruegel, Emmanuel started creating a series of green rooms, each with a different theme and linked with paths or corridors, creating a light to dark effect. A strong sense of structure has been given to the space with the planting of large topiaries (yew, box) but this is softened by the light touches of colours that bring the thousands of bulbs which flower in Spring including various daffodils as well as tulips, camassias and snowflakes.