Renaissance influence
The jardin à la française evolved from the French Renaissance garden, a style which was inspired by the See more

Jacques Boyceau de La Barauderie wrote in 1638 in his Traité du jardinage, selon les raisons de la nature et de l'art that "the principal reason for the existence of a garden is the … See more

The designers of the French garden saw their work as a branch of architecture, which simply extended the space of the building to the space … See more

The architects of the garden à la française did not stop at applying the rules of geometry and perspective to their work. In the first published treatises on gardens, in the 17th century, … See more

Jacques Boyceau, sieur de la Barauderie (c. 1560–1633) the superintendent of royal gardens under Louis XIII, became the first theorist of the new French style. His book, Traité du jardinage … See more

The garden à la française was often used as a setting for plays, spectacles, concerts, and displays of fireworks. In 1664, Louis XIV celebrated a six-day festival in the … See more

The appearance of the French garden in the 17th and 18th centuries was a result of the development of several new technologies. The first was géoplastie, the science of moving … See more