Victoria Euro Treasures 2015

Don’t Forget For even more inspiration for gracious living and gardening, visit our website, victoriamag.com. You’ll find photos, tips, and how-tos on our social media sites, so follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. P.S. Make sure to visit my blog, theribboninmyjournal.com. Where do your dreams take you? If countries steeped in history form the centerpieces of your aspirations, join us as we travel to Europe in search of well-cultivated gardens, elegant and comfortable hotels and inns, and a collection of carefully curated must-see destinations. For your inspiration, we have gathered some of our best-loved sources into these pages. I enjoy the challenges and rewards of planning a garden filled with plants that thrive in the hot Southern climate of my hometown. Learning about new and exotic shrubs is a hobby I pursue…

Studded with emerald islands and raised beaches, the sea inlet of Strangford Lough sparkles off Northern Ireland’s coastline. Its shores are equally stunning with their rolling hills, picturesque villages, and scenic lighthouses. Amid this idyllic landscape of unspoiled beauty lie some of the most breathtaking gardens in the British Isles—Mount Stewart, which is also the ancestral home of the influential Londonderry family, including the nineteenth-century European statesman Lord Castlereagh. Surrounded by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, the gardens owe much of their splendor to the area’s enviable subtropical microclimate. But they were little more than a few flower beds when their creator, Edith, Lady Londonderry, arrived with her husband, Lord Londonderry, in 1915. She could only have imagined the exotic planting schemes possible in this outdoor oasis. Her previous…

For twenty years, from 1874 until his death in 1895, successful industrial chemist Henry Davis Pochin pursued his passion—transforming a Georgian manor and its 80-acre estate into an exquisite haven where the seasons turn the color wheel all year long, creating stunning hues ranging from subdued russets to vibrant brights. Combining his scientific interests with a quest for beauty, Pochin devised a breeding program that has produced species of rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias, and other plants that are still grown today. Visitors to Bodnant would be forgiven for ignoring the science and simply enjoying the ever-changing tableaux that shift in sunshine and shadow. The grounds provide at least a full day’s exploration, with the temptation to return again and again to discover the most recent surprises. The renovated house, featuring Victorian-style half-timbering,…

Fervently devoted to his massive flower garden, called Le Clos Normand, Claude Monet was obsessed with designing the vibrant botanical compositions that characterize his estate in Giverny, France. The French Impressionist bought the roughly 2.5-acre plot in 1883 after spying the area’s verdant countryside from a train. During the next four decades, he transformed the existing house and sloping orchards to fit his family and vocational needs, as well as to embody his own personal tastes. The home’s interiors displayed his masterful touch—colorful walls and furnishings complemented works of contemporaries, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, and Édouard Manet. Yet, Monet considered the views of his brilliant surroundings to be equally captivating. Few are aware that the legendary artist truly planted to paint and that he halted his professional ambitions in order to…

What do you do for an encore when you’ve sold your wildly successful children’s clothing business, Bonpoint, you’re nowhere near ready to retire, and you’d like to say thank you? If you are Marie-France Cohen, you, along with your husband, Bernard, open another shop—one that allows you to have fun, to express your aesthetic vision in everything from clothes and interiors to books and flowers, and to give back (all profits go to a charity that benefits women and children in Madagascar). And you call your new store Merci. Visitors could happily spend the better part of a day browsing the 15,000 square feet of this artfully reconfigured nineteenth-century factory on the edge of Paris’s trendy Marais district. Everything can be found here—from stationery and housewares to a flower shop and…

In 1925, Welsh architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis purchased an old house and a parcel of overgrown wilderness along the coastline in Gwynedd, North Wales, that would inspire his life’s work. He believed that it was all very well and good to design a house, but designing an entire village would be a much better idea. The original structure was renovated and incorporated into what became a thirty-six-year-long endeavor that brought the dream to glorious fruition. Williams-Ellis completed the last building in Portmeirion at the age of 93. Even as much of the design world turned to stripped-down modernism, the architect retained his romantic sensibilities. His renderings were created with a definitive Arts and Crafts aesthetic, as well as a bit of classicism. An Italianate ambience seems to infuse every corner of…