June sees the conjunction of 2 events which combine the magic of French wine with the joy of summer gardens.
In LONDON, over 160 otherwise private gardens open their doors (or gates) for 2 days on 9th and 10th June 2007 oin the Loire Valley Wines Open Garden Squares weekend.
You will be able to discover many of London’s hidden treasures, ranging from stately set-pieces and formal landscapes through to some of London’s more eccentric and unusual open spaces. Along the way you can sample a range of Loire Valley Wines.
Amongst the many gardens you can even visit those at Holloway and Wandsworth Prisons (ominously the website adds "special conditions apply"!) There is also Islington's Canonbury Square which was named as the 2006 Loire Valley Wines Legacy Garden. Here the east side of the square received a major makeover including the planting of a small vineyard and rose bed as its centrepiece - reflecting the planting of the vineyards in the Loire Valley.
Over in France from June 30 to September 2, Beaune, capital of Burgundy hosts its Water Garden Festival - an ideal way of enhancing a visit to a major wine centre, and interesting old town.
For its third edition, the festival Cours Water Gardens takes you along to discover the various districts of Beaune with many various and ludic animations: kitchen gardens of the residents, flowered meadows, transitory gardens designed by schools of landscape designers, visits of course deprived exceptionally open to the public, and a visit of “strange Beaune” through its various monuments and statues which marked out its History, without forgetting the spectacles of street for smallest and largest.
For more info see www.ot-beaune.fr
