Botanical Park of Haute Bretagne
Photo: Calips / CC BY-SA 3.0, modified.
Overview
The Japanese Garden of the Botanical Park of Haute Bretagne is best identified as the Garden of the Rising Sun within the 25-hectare Parc Botanique de Haute Bretagne. The park presents itself as a “world garden” composed of contemporary thematic gardens, and EGHN describes it as a contemporary creation within a landscape garden dating from 1848. The Garden of the Rising Sun is one of its Japanese-inspired thematic spaces, combining stones, water and vegetation.
History
The Parc Botanique de Haute Bretagne was created from 1994 around the Château de la Foltière. The official practical-information page states that the garden ensemble was created from 1994 by the owner, Alain Jouno, an agronomist by training, as a personal botanical project without operating subsidy.
The site itself has an older estate history: EGHN places the present botanical park inside a 25-hectare landscape garden dating from 1848. The contemporary park is organised into themed areas associated with mythologies, literature, memory and travel. EGHN names the Japanese section as the Garden of the Rising Sun and places it among the park’s modern thematic compositions.
Japan Experience also identifies the Garden of the Rising Sun as the Japanese-garden component of the Botanical Park of Haute Bretagne. It notes that the garden combines three facets of Japanese garden design: promenade garden, tea garden and Zen garden. I did not find a Nodaigarden entry for this site, so the stronger sources here are the park’s own material, EGHN and Japan Experience.
Design features
The Garden of the Rising Sun is described by EGHN as a composition of stones, water and vegetation, animated by the sound of a waterfall. It focuses on abstract natural beauty, with shaped trees, a red bridge, a granite lantern and a path laid out in the “V-formation of geese in flight.” EGHN and Japan Experience both state that the garden cites three Japanese garden modes: promenade garden, Zen garden and tea garden.
Garden elements
Bridges
Waters and islands
Stones
Other elements
Current status
Extant Japanese-inspired thematic garden within the Parc Botanique de Haute Bretagne. It remains accessible during the park’s seasonal opening period, normally from March to mid-November.