From its elevated site, overlooking the chalk cliffs of Normandy’s alabaster coast, Les Jardins d’Etretat offers spectacular sweeping views of The Channel, which for centuries have inspired great artists, including Claude Monet.
Today, art still has a special association with this beautiful place. The view of the cliffs immortalised in so many paintings remains unchanged but now, superimposed in the foreground, is a sculpture of a bronze hoop with the figures of a woman and a man walking round it. This mesmerising work, entitled Summer by Armenian sculptor Gevorg Tadevosyan, is currently displayed on the terrace as part of the garden’s inaugural summer season group exhibition and competition Man and Nature: Double Game, launched in May.
Founded by fin de siècle French actress Madame Thébault in 1905, Les Jardins d’Etretat have been brilliantly revived over the past few years by the Paris-based landscape architect Alexandre Grivko, of the international garden design company Il Nature, together with his partner Mark Dumas.
