Third in a series exploring Europe’s diverse landscapes and gardens, from formal designs to wild, natural beauty…
Labor Day is finished and with it most of the summer, but I’m still reveling in some of the lovely memories of two months ago.
My last piece recalled the beauty of Paris and how a promenade can lead to joyful discoveries. This segment of the trip focuses on more up-close and personal highlights in locales we visited in the south of France and along Spain’s east coast from Catalonia in the north to southern Andalusia, all touching the Mediterranean Sea.
Together with friends and family (as well as my daughter and son-in-law’s cat Victor), we took the train from Paris’s Gare de Lyon to Montpelier where we felt the surge in temperature immediately. Arriving at the wedding venue (in Agde, near Sete) we heard the deafening chorus made by billions of cicadas – and felt the unremitting sun. This area is rich with grape vineyards that produce a wine grape known as Piquepoul. It has both dark-skinned (Piquepoul noir) and light-skinned (Piquepoul blanc) versions; by the way, both permitted blending grapes for the production of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The vineyards surrounding the wedding venue, a former winery, are juxtaposed against something like a Sonoran Desert scene with towering succulents amid flora that is suited to the semi-arid Mediterranean climate. Set against stone buildings, it came with a resident goat and dog that Victor the cat would befriend.
After the days surrounding the wedding, we headed onward by car to Cadaques, just over the French border into Catalonia, Spain. The Costa Brava is the coastal region in northeastern Spain (that stretches some 45 miles north of the Catalan capital of Barcelona), a place of pristine beaches, celebrated cuisine, and ancient fertile vineyards. Here, we spent several splendid days footsteps from the sea and within easy walking distance to the town with its white-washed buildings and picturesque harbor dotted with boats and lined with open-air restaurants.
The landscape here is striking if not surreal, with umbrella-shaped pine and olive trees framing the rocky coast with views of the Pyrenees Mountains and tiny coves that once served as hideouts for pirates. The area became a retreat for surrealist artist Salvador Dali. We visited his former home in Portlligat, once a collection of fishing huts that he and his wife transformed into their home, now a museum. It is captivating in its eccentricity, reflecting the Surrealist artist’s creative process. You truly get a sense that Dali is standing with you as you tour the maze of rooms; there is such a sense of him being alive through his art and his collections. The tour guide revealed that Dali boasted of being the first to see the sunrise every morning on the Iberian Peninsula, having installed a specially angled mirror for this purpose, viewable from his bed.
The sun-dappled garden frames a long pool that serves to showcase Dali’s surreal art, including sculptures, Greek statues, a giant egg, a bright pink lip sofa surrounded by Pirelli tire signs, and the famous Michelin Bibendum, all of this is set against irregular white stucco walls and stone hard scape with olive trees, palms, grasses, and white and pink geraniums leading up to a delightful tented seating area, all part of Dali’s elaborate staging. He and his wife, Gala, were known for hosting lavish and eccentric parties here with famous rock stars, actors and artists such as Walt Disney and Andy Warhol (no surprise there). The gardens were designed for public life and contemplation, with unique architectural elements like hidden corridors and peep holes, and a tower.
Back to earth, a hike near this area, in the natural park of Cap de Creus, led to a commanding lighthouse built in 1853 serves as both a navigational light and a coastal reference point in one of the most challenging areas of the Catalan coast called Punta de l’Esquena. Cliffs plunge down to numerous watery inlets where boats seem antlike in perspective. It seems as untouched as the nature reserve above, with diminutive flowers juxtaposed against the majestic Pyrenees backdrop. The reserve is a sure destination for hikers and adventurers.
Next stop was Barcelona but only for a night before a train took us south. Rather than searching out Gaudi’s architectural wonders (that will have to wait until some future time), we spent much of the day walking Las Ramblas, a famous tree-lined pedestrian boulevard that stretches past shops, restaurants, historic sites, and winds up at Port Vell. The energizing atmosphere is a huge draw for people, and you can expect street performers and artists, but be aware that pickpockets thrive here too. A bird’s eye view of Las Ramblas (once a riverbed) would show one long green strip of bisecting buildings, markets, and roads. To walk it is to appreciate the trees that cool the July heat. The garden atop our hotel extended this ambience, giving one pause to imagine how we could duplicate this idea back home.
The trip south by train gave us a little rest before getting our rental car in Alicante and provided views of the east coast towns (well, what is viewable from the train). We rented a villa in the mountains near Bedar within reach of the sea as well as ancient fortresses built by the Moors and dating back to the 9th through the 14th centuries. Some days we would stay put whereupon I could “study” the structure of the gardens. In this hilltop community, the gardens are informal but still with a sense of design. Seemingly part of that “design” is the sound of house sparrows intermingled with Eurasian doves and a softer drone of cicadas but none of civilization.
A multiple-species hedge that includes plumbago, two different colors of bougainvillea, hibiscus, sweet pea vine, and the ever-present pink oleander (which our host left a few sprigs of in little vases as a welcome gesture) grow against the interior wall surrounding the pool. Also, within the confines are palm, yucca, fig, bay, and lemon trees, along with a shrub-sized rosemary and scented geraniums and succulents that can withstand drought. As I studied these beauties, I wondered how my own plants were doing back home. The greenery is interspersed with terra-cotta pottery with functional or decorative features.
Many villas in the region boast exquisite formal gardens. Symmetry is a key feature as well as the way the garden frames the view at hand such as the Mediterranean Sea. Box trees, yews, balustraded terraces, hedges of azaleas, tightly designed borders, and stone statues are frequent components.
In places such as Mojacar, the steep terrain is studded with flowering vines, olive trees, and gigantic pines and cypresses. We nicknamed one restaurant (La Muralla) the “treehouse” for our pleasurable dining outdoors experience.
I noticed that throughout these hotter regions of the Med, oleander and bougainvillea thrive miraculously! Vines – including bougainvillea, mandevilla, passion vine, Spanish Flag (aka firecracker vine), as well as grape vines counter the dry summer landscape. Many people will display planters and urns of geraniums or cyclamens, adding a riot of color to the earthly shades of stucco.
All of these experiences leave an impression. Mediterranean gardens are vivacious, relaxing, uplifting, and inspirational all at once. Mostly though, they are necessary.
“…every moment it opens new unheard-of pathways.”
– From ‘The Garden’ by Federico Garcia Lorca
The Seaside Gardener
By Laura McLean
