Au Paradiz’en
Overview
Au Paradiz’en is a privately created Japanese-inspired garden in Vouvray, formerly Châtillon-en-Michaille and now part of Valserhône in the Ain department. It was created by Bernard Charbonnel, a professional gardener and tree-pruning specialist, and is recorded by the French garden inventory as “Au paradiz’en, jardin japonais Bernard Charbonnel”, with a creation date of 1999 and an area of about 0.55 ha.
History
The garden was created by Bernard Charbonnel toward the end of his professional activity in gardening and tree pruning. According to the specialist site Les jardins japonais, Charbonnel was inspired by the Adachi Museum of Art garden in Matsue, Japan, and used that inspiration to reshape the available land, create relief and organise curved views through the garden.
The first major phase was created in 1999, with a 300 m² pond, waterfall, Zen garden and tea house. Between 2007 and 2010, the garden was enlarged with a second pond, stream, waterfall, gravel dry garden, pavilion and tunnel linking the two garden areas. Local press later described the garden as extending over more than 6,000 m² and noted that it was selected in 2013 for the television programme Le Jardin préféré des Français, where it gained wider public attention.
The garden was formerly visitable, but current specialist documentation states that it is no longer accessible to the public. Some older garden-directory and event-location pages still preserve contact or venue information, but for the database the safest current access status is closed / no public access unless a direct current source confirms reopening.
Design features
The garden combines water gardens, waterfalls, dry gravel gardens, a tea-house element, pavilion, tunnel and carefully shaped topography. The composition includes two pond areas connected by circulation routes and a tunnel, with dry gardens placed beside the water. Distant mountain views and miniature landforms refer to the surrounding local relief, giving the garden an explicitly Alpine-Japanese character rather than a strictly traditional Japanese style.
Garden elements
Bridges
Buildings
Enclosures
Waters and islands
Stones
Other elements
Current status
Private Japanese-inspired garden formerly open to visitors and event use. Specialist Japanese-garden documentation now states that it is no longer accessible to the public.