A must-see
article | Reading time5 min
The garden and park at Nohant are inextricably linked with the house, life and work of George Sand. They complete the visit to the house and allow you to walk in the footsteps of the writer and her illustrious guests!
George Sand and his garden
From childhood, George Sand forged a strong and lasting bond with the garden, where she spent unforgettable moments, recounted in Histoire de ma vie, an autobiographical account. Memories shared with her father, who died suddenly, and also with her mother, fed her imagination before her guardianship was entrusted to her grandmother. She loves to spend time with those around her.
The park and garden were a playground for the little girl, surrounded by friends from the village, and in adulthood became a place for observing nature, experimenting, strolling, escaping, rejuvenating and reflecting... Time spent in the garden was an art of living, a quest for physical and spiritual freedom for this emblematic 19th-century woman. Her writings (correspondence, autobiography, diary) bear witness to her interest in this place, her passion for nature, the time she spent there, the sweet and painful memories...
... I sow, I plant, I smoke my flowerbeds, I make beds, I drive stakes, I raise walls, I bring in light earth from half a mile away. I'm in clogs all day and only come home for dinner...
© Musée de la vie romantique- Roget Viollet
An identical garden
These spaces retain the architecture the writer knew, as evidenced by the cadastral plan drawn up for the commune of Nohant-Vic in 1841.
Access is via a wrought-iron gate at the far end of the main courtyard, and consists of two distinct sections: one bright, with the garden for cultivation; the other shady, with the park George Sand called "petit bois".
The writer was introduced to botany at an early age by her tutor Deschartes, but above all by botanist and friend Jules Néraud.
© Archives Départemental de l'Indre
The garden
Before the long driveway lined with perennial beds that separates the vegetable garden from the orchard and rose garden, a path leads to the family cemetery.
As for the rose garden, in her writings the writer speaks of a rosarium within the garden, and confesses her gratitude to roses for their long flowering period, sometimes well into winter. Her favorite "is a modest, pinkish-white rose with burnet leaves... which has the finest tone and the most delicate fragrance...".
The kitchen garden, meanwhile, has lost its scale: it no longer has the nourishing function it once had, due to the isolation of the site. In George Sand's day, it was used to provide food for the family, guests and servants. This space was organized in squares, within which crops were protected from wind and cold by the walls surrounding the property.
© Gillard et Vincent
The small wood
With its maze-like winding paths, the small wood extends to a meadow bordering the road.
To the east, a small stone island surrounded by a moat, ideal for solitude and reverie, recalls the Rousseauist influences in George Sand's family history.
To the south and west, along the road to Châteauroux, a "saut-de-loup separates public and private space. In George Sand's day, the pavilion on the edge of this road served as the main entrance to the property, allowing access to the house via the dining room stoop.
The plant cover has changed over time. Apart from a few trees, such as the centuries-old yews in the cemetery, the two cedars of Lebanon at the rear of the house and a few twisted boxwoods, the plant species present are not those that George Sand cultivated, observed and admired 200 years ago. Few plants reach canonical ages! However, the small wood is made up of the same species of trees and shrubs as those evoked by the novelist, and the lime trees on the terrace echo those that George Sand saw from her bedroom windows.
The small wood is simply maintained, so that the small paths criss-crossing it remain passable, and the trees can easily develop their branches. These trees are endemic to the Berry countryside: lime, ash, hornbeam and lilac.
As the seasons change, the ground is carpeted with flowers: celandines, anemones, periwinkles and primroses in spring, cyclamen in autumn and snowdrops in winter.
© Pascal Lemaître / Centre des monuments nationaux
The 4 seasons
© Maison George Sand / Centre des monuments nationaux
© Maison George Sand / Centre des monuments nationaux
© Maison George Sand / Centre des monuments nationaux
© Maison George Sand / Centre des monuments nationaux
Throughout her life, George Sand was a spectator of the cycle of the seasons, which she could enjoy every day at Nohant by going down to the garden or opening her windows...