The maze

The integration of a maze in a wooded and natural garden was a challenge. We didn’t want to destroy the delicate balance between rural landscape and cultivated garden by introducing something too artificial.

So we have created a maze which changes with the seasons, is gently pruned and which provides a natural link between the classic style of the peony garden and the wild rose garden.

The green maze was first developed during the Italian Renaissance. Now it is mainly used for its entertainment value in pleasure parks, but its initial use was sacred. The Christians used it to symbolize the quest for spiritual attainment, the Buddhists for teaching their mandalas; and psychoanalysts see it as a way of delving into the subconscious.

Visitors certainly seem to enjoy a certain thrill when they embark on an adventure in the maze: there is a reassuring excitement in deliberately getting lost when you know there is a way out.