Jardin de La Louve Bonnieux
Bonnieux is one of the leading villages of the Luberon. A certain Peter Mayle is not far away, the Englishman who became famous with his best seller "A Year in Provence".
When garden lovers mention Bonnieux they invariably finish the sentence with a magic formula: "Oh yes! Nicole de Vésian". A wonderfully talented woman, Nicole de Vésian, died in 1997, after a career as a designer for Hermès, having acquired a small village house in 1986 on a bluff connected by a path rather than a road (Chemin Saint Gervais). Though the pharmacy and village centre are just 500m away, at La Louve it feels as if you turn your back on civilization, as the garden overlooks a forest on the other side of the valley. Those who have seen one of the many stories published on Nicole de Vésian’s garden know of what we are talking. Sylvie Verger had read enough to become "addicted". She was more than curious as
to how Nicole had made a garden in a stony area such as the hill of Bonnieux, with its limestone base.
Sylvie lived in Normandy at the time and had to get along with winds and marshes. When her husband Pascal retired, she persuaded him to move south. Meanwhile Judith Pillsbury had purchased La Louve for its rosemary garden, boxwood, germander, lavender and all kinds of small shrubs but didn’t want to maintain the whole garden and decided to separate it into two. In 2014, she sold part of the garden to Sylvie, an emotional time for both. Judith happy to know the garden would be well cared for and Sylvie because she never could have imagined that one day she would become full-time gardener at La Louve. Tours are available by appointment, but I don’t recommend it for those with a disability as there are many narrow staircases.
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