The "Jardin des Personnalités" of Honfleur

Honfleur – The “Jardin des Personnalites”

August 5, 2022 / Honfleur, Normandy, West

The “Jardin des Personnalites” (Famous People Garden) is a quite recent edition (built in 2004) to Honfleur. It’s a landscaped garden/park, with inside the park, small gardens each named after a famous person who has lived or worked in Honfleur.

The garden is spread out over 10 hectares (25 acres) and lies next to the promenade and Seine river. It’s a very scenic area with a nice, flat walk.

The "Jardin des Personnalités"
The “Jardin des Personnalités”

Inside the park are several lanes you can walk on, but you can also walk on the grass.

The "Jardin des Personnalités" lake
The “Jardin des Personnalités” lake

Towards the end of the park you will find a small lake, a small island inside the lake and a bridge. This is where you will find the famous French painter Claude Monet.

The "Jardin des Personnalités" lake
The “Jardin des Personnalités” lake
The "Jardin des Personnalités" of Honfleur
The “Jardin des Personnalités” of Honfleur

There are many open spaces with benches where you can sit and take in the views. You can also picnic, and there are frequent events held here(check the Tourist Office for events and timetables).

Individual personality garden entry in the "Jardin des Personnalités"
Individual personality garden entry in the “Jardin des Personnalités”

When walking through the park, you will see many hedges and paths through the hedges. All around this area, the hedges have been cut in a specific form……..:

Boat shaped mini-gardens in the "Jardin des Personnalités"
Boat shaped mini-gardens in the “Jardin des Personnalités”

….. the form is a boat. In the middle of each “boat” is the entry….

Entry to the boat shaped mini-gardens in the "Jardin des Personnalités"
Entry to the boat shaped mini-gardens in the “Jardin des Personnalités”

… this is where you go inside the famous person’s garden. The one above is empty and is waiting to be filled. Inside the ones that already have a famous personality, it looks like this:

Personality mini-garden in the "Jardin des Personnalités"
Personality mini-garden in the “Jardin des Personnalités”

Inside each famous person’s area is a landscaped garden with flowers, plants and trees, and a bust of the person. There is also a printed notice with a brief biography of the person.

The Personalities

The people represented in the park are people who have lived and/or worked in Honfleur. They range from painters (Eugene Boudin, Claude Monet, Johan Barthold Jongkind, Leon Leclerc, Alexandre Dubourg), artists (Erik Satie, Alphonse Allais, Charles Baudelaire, Lucie Delarue Mardrus, la Comtesse d’Aulnoy), explorers (Binot Lepaulmier de Gonneville, Samuel de Champlain {discover of Quebec, Canada}, Jean Doublet, Pierre Berthelot), historical figures (Charles V, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Anne-Marie Louis d’Orleans), author (Francoise Sagan) and actor (Michel Serrault).

Here are a few of the personalities (their busts)

BoudinDubourgChamplainJongkindMonet
Eugene BoudinEugene Boudin
Louis-Alexandre DubourgLouis-Alexandre Dubourg
Samuel de ChamplainSamuel de Champlain
Johan Barthold JongkindJohan Barthold Jongkind
Claude MonetClaude Monet

Claude Monet has the most impressive place, since he has his own lake and island.

Honfleur and its painters

Honfleur was (and is) a very picturesque town, so it saw many artists capturing the beauty of this very scenic town. The reason it has so many tourists is obvious…. it’s very pretty. Here are some of the artists that have come to apply their art in the town (a link, symbolized by a “⇠“, to the artist’s works will appear when published. A “*” indicates that the artist did not work directly in Honfleur but instead worked outside of Honfleur in a nearby town).

Conclusion

Walking in the park is a nice thing to do if the weather is good. It’s a nice stroll on flat surfaces and you can learn a thing or two about some local (and some international) personalities. On top of that, IT’S FREE.

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