The house and gardens of Georges Clemenceau, in Saint-Vincent-sur-Jard, offer, on the occasion of the 2024 edition of the Rendez-vous to the gardens "The 5 senses in the garden", visits of the garden of Georges Clemenceau on June 1st and 2nd at 10:15 and 15:15.
Visitors will be invited to walk in the company of Marie Vernillet, head gardener, in the gardens where the senses will be evoked with regard to the landscape composition as well as the choice of plants desired by Clemenceau: the view of the ocean, the sound of the waves, the smell of flowers and pines.
Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929) moved to «la Bicoque» in 1919. He then signed the peace treaty at the end of the Great War of 1914-18, at the cost of an intense personal investment. He wants to rest from a long career devoted to politics and return to his native Vendée.
This is how he nicknames this small isolated house, simple rental where he will stay every beautiful season until his death. Patiently, he composes his garden, attentive to the advice of his great friend, the painter Claude Monet, and following his own desires despite the sand, sea winds and high tides.
The gardens of «la Bicoque» are singular and very personal creations: Clemenceau himself designs their «clutter of plants», the staging of species and the assortments of colors. These «wild» compositions, although well thought out, reflect the freedom and the absence of constraints in which the great man chose to live his last years. Against the discouraging advice of nurserymen, Clemenceau managed to grow on the dune fertilized with algae, a multitude of perennials and annuals, protected from windbreak hedges.