Located in Vaulx, almost halfway between the lakes of Annecy and Bourget, just 15 minutes from Rumilly, the Jardins Secrets offer from April to October an exotic and unusual stroll over nearly 7000 m² of patios, courtyards, galleries and flowery spaces. Enough to stir our five senses!
Pebble carpet, basins, fountains, plants; cut, carved or turned wood; Andalusian garden, rose alley, lyres garden, priest's garden… The Secret Gardens are both multiple and unique, they are unlike any other garden that you have visited before.
“A journalist had compared them to the Palais Idéal du Postman Cheval in Hauterives. It's a pretty well-chosen image, since they were never designed according to a clear and precise overall plan. "
“They form a mosaic of all different spaces, which flourish according to our desires. They are spontaneous and empirical gardens, ”explains Myriam Moumen, director of this place created by her parents 35 years ago.
Open to the public since 1994, the Secret Gardens are one of the unusual curiosities of the Albanian territory.
At the start, the Moumen family had absolutely no idea of embarking on such an adventure. “My father, Alain, was a carpenter, and my mother, Nicole, decorated the furniture he created. They had therefore bought an old farm in Vaulx, to transform it into a creative workshop. A vacant lot adjoined the farmhouse. They first set it up with no clear idea behind it. Then they got caught up in the game of creation, and it became a real passion, ”says Myriam, who took part in this great family adventure with her sisters Leïla and Sonia.
If the influences are varied and cosmopolitan, there is still a slightly more marked oriental tendency, the founders of the places having spent part of their childhood in Morocco and Tunisia. For the director of the Secret Gardens, change of scenery and zen, these are the two words that best describe this haven of peace, where it is good to stroll with the family.
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Photos: Gilles Lansard, Jardins Secrets