Visits to gardens and a winery in Cairanne and the MGF Annual General Meeting

Cairanne is a hilltop village not far from Vaison-la-Romaine. Its public gardens have been developed in an interesting way and we also had the opportunity to visit the garden of MGF member, Helga Bolin.

Helga has developed her garden both around the house and in an area on the other side of the street on a site which overlooks the surrounding country towards Orange to the west. Planting is almost exclusively Mediterranean plants that can tolerate drought in summer and frost in winter and there was plenty of colour. The garden was beautifully maintained and included a wide variety of plants. Helga designed and planted the garden herself, most of it on a previously bare hillside. She had placed large boulders at strategic points on the steep slope to stabilise the soil.

In 2010, the village of Cairanne had the brilliant idea of turning every spare patch of public land into a garden with a special theme, each one suited to its situation and with great attention to native drought-tolerant plants. They held a competition, open to gardeners, botanists and artists and stipulated that water conservation and the selection of plants adapted to wind and dryness would be important factors.

The first competition was entitled ‘Invitation à copier‘. Four gardens were created (A, C, D and E on the plan). The idea was to show gardens which people could easily make at home. The second competition, entitled ‘Jardin Refuge’, was initiated in 2012, and resulted in the water ribbon and a garden which provides a refuge for insects.

Starting at the car park at the bottom of the village we found the Ruban d’eau, a winding decorative conduit at waist level in a style often seen in Italian Renaissance gardens.

Close by there was a garden intended for teaching the principles of gardening to children from the adjacent primary school. It was excellently laid out, although some of the plants were missing, and had a strong emphasis on vegetables. The pedagogical interest of this garden was first class. To capture the children’s interest, the plant species were grouped to echo the seven Happy Families game: famille garrigue, aromate, tisane, jardin, odorante, potager, pré.

Walking up the hill between the new and the old parts of the village we passed Garden ‘B’, ’Talus en Movement’ inspired by Gilles Clément’s ideas. The bright flower colours, red, pink and white, were chosen to echo the colours of Cairanne wines.

Past Helga’s garden, we reached some of the other public gardens ‘Horizon vertical’, ‘le jardin de Diogene’, (which had been provided with a barrel ready to house the Cynic philosopher) and ‘Semer à tous vents’. All were well stocked with plants in a typical ‘dry gardening’ style.

We enjoyed picnicking in a pleasant area shaded by mûriers platanes and with magnificent views across the valley.

After lunch we visited Domaine Armand, an old-established family winery at the foot of the old village.

Audrey Armand took us into the fields to see a number of varieties of vines and enthusiastically explained about different pruning styles and cultivation methods. She said that typically the roots will go down to 30 metres so that the vine can survive the summer drought, but some very old vines (around 80 years old) have been found with roots going to a depth of 100 metres.

Naturally, the visit concluded in the cave, with a tasting of AOP Cairanne wines.

The early evening saw us assembled once more for the AGM. The meeting took place in the salle polyvalente in Crestet and was attended by 46 members. The minutes of the meeting are available in the MGF section of the members’ forum.

After the traditional pot amical we were welcomed by Fiejette and David Worm and their family for dinner at their restaurant, La Fleur Bleue, Crestet.

Text: Rosemary Halford and Jennifer Hastings
Photos: Rosemary Halford and Hubert Nivière