Japanese Garden, Lamalou-les-Bains
Overview
The Japanese Garden of Lamalou-les-Bains is a small public Japanese-style garden created in connection with the town’s friendship relationship with Misasa, in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. It is listed at 12 Avenue de la République and was inaugurated in 1990, the same year the Lamalou-les-Bains–Misasa friendship / twinning relationship was established.
History
Lamalou-les-Bains is a French thermal town, and its link with Misasa is especially appropriate because Misasa is also known as a spa town. The Consulate General of Japan in Marseille records that Misasa and Lamalou-les-Bains have maintained close cooperative relations since 1990, the year their twinning agreement was signed. Later exchange activities included visits by school delegations and “Japanese Day” events in Lamalou-les-Bains, showing that the relationship remained active beyond the garden’s initial creation.
The garden was inaugurated in 1990 in the context of this Franco-Japanese relationship. Local descriptions also link it directly to Misasa, describing the “Jardin Japonais” and its Maison du Soleil as being in honour of Lamalou’s Japanese twin town. The garden should therefore be recorded primarily as a sister-city / friendship garden rather than as a botanical or private garden project.
Design features
Available online sources give only limited detail on the garden’s layout. The site is described as a Japanese garden with a Maison du Soleil, associated with Misasa and the wider Japanese cultural relationship of the town. Without a detailed plan or reliable design description, the safest classification is a small modern Japanese-style public garden.
Garden elements
Bridges
Waters and islands
Stones
Current status
Extant public Japanese garden in Lamalou-les-Bains. It remains a local symbol of the town’s relationship with Misasa, Japan.