DiscovertheHistoryofLeBoisdesMoutiers

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Anchored on the edges of the white cliffs of the Alabaster Coast, the village of Varengeville-sur-Mer is known worldwide for having been celebrated by renowned painters such as Claude Monet and Georges Braque.

The list of artists, painters, sculptors, composers, poets, writers, and filmmakers who have left their mark in Varengeville is truly extraordinary and continues to grow. Indeed, the appeal of this site, illuminated by the purity of the iodised air, is a constantly renewed source of inspiration for any eye sensitive to extreme beauty.

Created by Guillaume Mallet and his wife Adelaïde Grunelius in 1898, “Le Bois des Moutiers” is located in Varengeville-sur-Mer near Dieppe in Upper Normandy, a village beloved by the Impressionists.

It comprises an architectural ensemble (a grand manor surrounded by structured gardens) and a stunning park, a true work of botanical art.

Le Bois des Moutiers from the white cliffs of the Côte d'Albâtre

ThePatronsoftheBoisdesMoutiers

Le Bois des Moutiers seems to have been conceived from the start as the chosen place for a pioneering project of an essentially spiritual nature. The architectural elements and their skilfully calculated arrangement follow certain theosophical principles. The application of these principles makes the stroll a journey rich in references, where the walker “passes through a forest of symbols.”

Guillaume Mallet was born in 1860 into a family of Protestant bankers. His great-grandfather Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf, founder of the famous Indian calico factories of Jouy, sensitised his family to art in all its forms as well as the beauty of gardens. As a child, he stayed on the Isle of Wight, remarkable for its highly hilly terrain, reflecting the Anglophilia then in vogue among the upper classes of his time.

In 1895, Guillaume Mallet married Adélaïde Grunelius, from a banking family with Alsatian and Rhenish roots. Renouncing a career as a cavalry officer, he chose to involve himself, together with his wife, in an extraordinary project with aesthetic, scientific, and spiritual ambitions.

AStoryofCollaboration

From the outset, Guillaume Mallet and his wife endeavoured to implement at the Bois des Moutiers a project responding to a clearly articulated manifesto.

To this end, they engaged a 29-year-old architect named Edwin Lutyens, and an avant-garde landscape architect, Gertrude Jekyll. These two masters collaborated all the more easily as they were united by their ideals and aesthetic sense.

Le Bois des Moutiers is the result of close collaboration between an enlightened patron, Guillaume Mallet, a young genius architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, and a renowned landscape architect, Gertrude Jekyll.

Watercolor of Gertrude Jekyll (1843 - 1932)

View of the house from the “Mixed Borders” garden (1899)

As in any great work, simplicity here is not the mark of an easy path but the victory over a multitude of material and technical difficulties.

The writings of William Robinson and Francesco Colonna (The Dream of Poliphilus) inspire the staging of the gardens and the park.

Designed as an introductory journey with a grand perspective parallel to the seven-story house, the interior spaces of the house converse with “the green rooms” in the garden and further away with the views of the park and the sea. The walls crowned with tiles radiating like roots from the south façades anchor the project to the region. The volumes, the layout of the floors, the geometries, and the symbols, provide an ideal support for Miss Jekyll’s creations. The house rises organically from the garden. The vertical windows of the grand staircase harmoniously respond to the chimneys reaching towards the sky, balancing the horizontal architecture of the enclosure walls and the pergola.

Both were in line with the Arts and Crafts movement and displayed a propensity for symbolic aesthetics, typical of Pre-Raphaelitism. One of the driving forces of their collaboration was the passionate pursuit—one might call it an almost Platonic quest—concerning everything related to the idea of pure harmony and simplicity of forms.

The guiding idea was to create at Le Bois des Moutiers, more than a “conversation,” a symbiotic relationship between the house, the gardens, and the park. Simple in principle, this idea nonetheless required sustained reflection to unfold in space and take shape.

At each phase, the project demanded extreme inventiveness and mobilised a host of skills and diverse techniques. The simplicity and purity that assert themselves today are the fruit of both slow maturation and great sophistication in execution.

View of the house from the patis (May 2023)

AWorkRepresentativeoftheArtsandCraftsMovement

The house of Le Bois des Moutiers is unique in France in the history of the Arts and Crafts movement because it brings together, as in the time of the Italian Renaissance, a young genius architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) (author of the Viceroy’s Palace in New Delhi), artisans from the “William Morris & Co” company of Merton Abbey, and Robert Anning Bell, a Pre-Raphaelite artist (close to Dante Rossetti and Burnes-Jones) for the interior decoration, thus forming an inseparable whole.

TheFirstMixedBordersinFrance

Although the architectural ensemble of Le Bois des Moutiers is rightly considered a masterpiece, the park is no less a unique work of art due to the talent of Guillaume Mallet and 40 years of intense labour. Inspired by the paintings of Lorrain, Poussin, and Burnes-Jones, and by the advice of landscape architect Gertrude Jekyll and gardener-writer William Robinson, the park is representative of the Arts and Crafts movement and its general principles of extensive acclimatisation of exotic plants, embroidery effects, and stained glass, and the exclusive choice of medieval colours.

The gardens, covering an area of 2 hectares, surrounding the house were designed by the architect, in close collaboration with the owner and the renowned English landscape architect Miss Gertrude Jekyll (1849-1932). Designed as an extension of the house, these walled structured spaces contain the first mixed borders in France. These “green rooms” communicate with each other and gradually lead to the grand landscape park, which is intentionally more natural.

The park, covering an area of 8 hectares, was entirely planted by Guillaume Mallet in a valley oriented towards the sea.

TheExceptionalNatureoftheSoilinthePaysdeCaux

The acidic nature of the soil, exceptional in the Pays de Caux, allowed the introduction of many rare species, in stark contrast to the local vegetation (Chinese azaleas, eucryphias from Chile, Japanese maples, magnolias, rhododendrons from the Himalayas…). These species, now mature, have sometimes reached impressive sizes—up to 10 metres tall.

The walk unfolds in a succession of clearings, each dominated by a particular species, imparting a distinctive character.

Chinese Azaleas, Eucryphias from Chile, Japanese Maples, Magnolias, Rhododendrons from the Himalayas…

Theblossomsgivetheparkperpetualinterest

Since purchasing the property in 2020, Jérôme and Sophie Seydoux have undertaken a vast restoration project.

They have surrounded themselves with three lovers of the place: Jean-François Bodin for architecture, Jacques Grange for the restoration of the house, and Madison Cox for the restoration and recomposition of the gardens. Each has worked to restore and beautify Le Bois des Moutiers, respecting its history and continuing the spirit of Guillaume Mallet.

The blossoms follow one another throughout the year, giving the park an ongoing, uninterrupted appeal. The magnolias blooming from March-April precede the azaleas and rhododendrons in May-June. The summer, marked by roses and hydrangeas, leads to October and November, when the autumn colours, especially those of the Japanese maples, are always very spectacular.

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