Rendez-vous aux jardins - édition 2026

Rendez-vous aux jardins on the theme of sight “The five senses in the garden: sight” is the theme chosen this year. Rendez-vous aux jardins on the theme of sight “The five senses in the garden: sight” is the theme chosen this year. Since 2003, Rendez-vous aux jardins has celebrated the richness and diversity of parks and gardens in France and in 22 other participating European countries, around a theme chosen by the National Commission for Heritage and Architecture (gardens section). After “The five senses in the garden” in 2024, the Commission decided to develop this theme through each of the five senses. The first is sight. Smell is already planned for 2028. New historical, cultural and technical representations This theme of sight highlights the depiction of parks and gardens over the centuries in engravings, paintings and other drawings. Since the Renaissance, architects and master gardeners have used devices such as perspective to give the impression of a garden being longer than it actually is, or anamorphosis, an optical illusion that alters the perception of space. André Le Nôtre regularly used these techniques in his gardens, such as Vaux-le-Vicomte and Sceaux, where the flowerbeds and expanses of lawn change shape as one walks through them. Thanks to advances in geometry since the 17th century, mapping of the territory and landscape has enabled extremely precise plans of parks and gardens to be surveyed, showing both projects and surveys of existing gardens. LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), a distance-measurement technique (telemetry) that uses the properties of light, makes it possible to visualize a garden’s subsoil without archaeological exploration, and then depict it through a survey. This technique, used to survey forests, is very useful for surveying large formal or landscaped parks. Photography, whose bicentenary is celebrated in 2026, is also a beautiful way of conveying the beauty or variety of a garden. Cinema has also drawn heavily on parks and gardens: L’arroseur arrosé, the second film in history, shot in Louis Lumière’s own garden, takes place in a garden and was initially called “The Gardener and the Little Rascal”. Exceptional collaboration with the Valentin Haüy association For this theme, the Ministry of Culture will undertake an exceptional collaboration with the Valentin Haüy association (AVH) and the Comité des Parcs et Jardins de France. Through this cultural and festive initiative, AVH, which works for the autonomy of visually impaired and blind people, is offering people with disabilities the opportunity to discover the sensory dimension of gardens. www.avh.asso.fr/ Program specific to Marseille: Visit to Villa Santa Lucia Garden - Corniche - 60 Traverse Nicolas - 13007 Located in Marseille, in the heart of Roucas Blanc, this property overlooking the Corniche Kennedy offers an exceptional view of the sea. The garden of Villa Santa Lucia features a remarkable collection of 19th-century architecture and rockwork decorations created in the 1890s by rockwork artist Gaspard Gardini: caves, waterfalls, greenhouse, belvedere, nativity scene, fortified castle... Today, the garden consists of century-old pine trees and a collection of Mediterranean and subtropical plants comprising many rare species and varieties.