Colette and Corrèze
The Colette Gardens located near the castle of Castel-Novel (where she lived) retrace the life of this famous 20th century novelist.
Colette's arrival at Castel Novel
Colette is in love. She has just met the man who will be her second husband, Henry de Jouvenel, politician, editor-in-chief of the newspaper The Morning. They arrive in Varetz at the Castel Novel castle and Colette is immediately attracted by the pink building, by the nature that surrounds it, by the thousands of roses from collections that smell, by the bees that buzz and gather nectar. Because Colette loves nature, she does not differentiate between man, animal and flowers. Everything for her is subject to wonder: flowers, cats, birds, butterflies, the sun on the budding wheat, the rain that makes pearls.
The life of the writer in Corrèze
Colette was 40 years old when she discovered Corrèze. When Sido, her mother, has just died, she herself becomes the mother of a little girl with a beautiful chirp, full of strength, with full and red cheeks. Colette is madly in love with her husband whom she nicknames "Sidi", "my master".
In Corrèze, she discovered her favorite cook Pauline, from Dampniat near Brive, who would follow her for 38 years, everywhere, until the end. Because Colette loves all pleasures and particularly good food. She couldn't live without Pauline.
When she arrives in Corrèze she has already had several lives, she has known several regions, all revealed by love. The Burgundy of her childhood near her mother Sido, the Franche Comté of Willy her first husband, the Brittany of her love affairs with the Duchess of Morny. After Jouvenel's Corrèze, she will encounter Provence thanks to her third husband. Then, she will end her life in the garden of the Palais Royal in Paris.
Les Jardins de Colette: a tribute to the life of the novelist
It is this journey that the Gardens of Varetz tell in flowers. Five hectares designed in 2008 by Anouk Debarre, landscape architect. Colette had a collection of butterflies, the wicker maze took their shape.
Six lives, six gardens: the Gardens of Colette.
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