After lunch in Dieppe we drove to a house called Le Bois de Moutiers. It’s unique in being the only house in France designed (in 1898) by the English architect Edwin Lutyens with garden planting by Gertrude Jekyll. It has many of the features of Lutyen’s early work: circular steps, inserts of clay tiles into garden arches and oak Arts-and-Crafts beams and staircases inside the house. The formal gardens were set out in compartments along an axis so that each division of the house looked out over its own garden room. Lots of roses, box-edging and herbaceous planting.
The house has been rendered with a cement stucco which sadly has not stood the test of time, turning to a grubby grey-brown, and just beginning to crack off in places, where it’s exposed to the weather. It all needs a bit of TLC, if time and money would permit. The family are doing their very best to maintain the house and the garden, which has extensive woodland running down nearly to the sea, but French inheritance laws, in which all descendants have an equal share, have made this a difficult task. In 2011 it was on the market, but the house hasn’t sold yet – so if you have a few spare million euros, do contact them. Their website has an excellent video.
To be continued….
pennyburnfield 