Gardens of Provence and the French Riviera.

From the bastides of Provence to the affluent gardens along the Riviera, this book unfolds an entirely new vista of garden designs, images, and experiences. The over 500 illustrations, including 375 in full color, depict a rich and fascinating area of France where gardens have been at the center of social life for centuries.

These are contrasting types of gardens - the provencal bastides dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries retain the geometrical character of Renaissance gardens, while the garden culture of the coastal enclaves softens lines and forms with recollections of romantic Italy and Victorian England, and exploits the possibilities of luxuriant trees and shrubs. Yet these opposite types are united by their various responses to the challenges of a shared cluster of microclimates.

Sections of the book that discuss the social, economic, and climatic conditions of the area are followed by detailed and illustrated entries on 50 individual gardens. Each is described along with its history, and both plants and features such as fountains, statuary, and pergolas are itemized. A plan of each garden, accompanied by numerous views, makes this section of fundamental importance to the history of French gardens and - since many late nineteenth and early twentieth century gardens on the Riviera were created by international designers like Ferdinand Bac and Harold Peto - to the literature of modern garden history.

Michel Racine is an architect for the Ministry of Housing. He and his coauthors Ernest Boursier-Mougenot and Francoise Binet are founding members of the Association for the Art of Landscapes and Gardens.

Any study of gardens of a specified area should be a study of social, intellectual, and economic conditions as well as of climate and ecology. This work traces changing philosophies and life-styles from medieval kitchen gardens to the geometric shapes of the 1920s, from the bastides of Provence to the coastal gardens of the Cote d'Azur with their reflections of classical Italy and Victorian England. A tour of gardens, many otherwise inaccessible, follows, with plans and photographs to "demonstrate the full scope of landscape creation in this remarkable region." A guide along this region's primrose path; for large general collections. Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum Lib., New York
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.