This article originally appeared in the March 1990 issue of ELLE DECOR. For more stories from our archive, subscribe to ELLE DECOR All Access.
When Yves Saint Laurent and I bought the Chateau Gabriel near Deauville, the estate was in sorry condition after years of neglect. There were innumerable dead trees—we had to cut down more than a thousand elms—and the layout of the gardens had totally disappeared.
Ten years later, thanks to the help of landscape architect Franz Baechier and our gardener, Jean, this wasteland has become a suite of casual but elegant garden «rooms.» Baechier, like myself, is an admirer of Charles de Noailles, Vita Sackville-West, and Russell Page, and their elegant gardens.
Kitchen garden walls trap the sun and keep out the winds.
Along the rounded banks of a brook then is now a jardin japonais, with masses of German irises in shades of black, maroon, and yellow. The brick paved courtyard is part of this series of gardens, too, flanked beyond its low stone walls by clipped box, azaleas, and rhododendron.
Azalea and rhododendron preside over the brick-paved courtyard
Near the house is a walled garden inspired by Sir Edwin Lutyens, a kind of cloister for kitchen plants, though it does have its share of flowers—climbing roses, white daisies, blue clematis. And like Victorian botanists manqué, we even have a protected spot facing due south for growing yuccas, palms, and banana trees.
There’s a rose garden, and we planted over a thousand trees: birches, oaks, cypresses, and so many others I won’t even attempt lo list them. I’m not partial to botanical names: I prefer «apple tree» to Malus sylvestris. To be loved, a garden needn’t be described in Latin.
Pierre Bergé in the garden.
Our work at Gabriel won’t be finished for years, of course, though the gardens are starting to look presentable. The process is just the opposite of fashion, and it amuses me to note that Yves Saint Laurent—who’s accustomed to putting out spring collections in the fall—is obliged here to bow to the laws of nature and deal with the seasons in their true order.
Pierre Berge has been couturier, Yves Saint Laurent’s partner and business manager since the 1960s. In the top image: A stream winds through the Japanese garden.
