Orchaise 2 Credit Leonard De SerresOrchaise 2 Credit Leonard De Serres
©Orchaise 2 Credit Leonard De Serres

Le Prieuré d'Orchaise Traveller's trees

Just a few kilometers from Blois, the Orchaise priory is home to a botanical park boasting 2,200 varieties of plants and trees.

A Romanesque bell tower dominating the Cisse valley, 10 km northwest of Blois, a priory built in 1060 by the Marmoutier monks, damaged by the Hundred Years’ War, then rebuilt in the 15th and 19th centuries… the Orchaise park could give an image of eternal France.

But Hubert Treuille, amateur botanist and tireless traveller, imagined this 3-hectare park as an ode to the diversity of nature. This globe-trotter, curious about everything, brought back in his luggage birches from the Himalayas, cryptomers from Japan, American hornbeams, great cedars from Lebanon… More than two thousand two hundred varieties of plants and trees from every continent, which he has brought together in the grounds of the Orchaise priory.

A place rich in species and landscapes

In this place rich in species and landscapes, the paths lead the visitor from the rigorous French garden to the sinuous English garden or to the “hot country” plants. Here, in autumn, the Japanese maple blazes and there’s no such thing as a gray winter. A late plant rubs shoulders with an early one, purple foliage with golden foliage, and the garden is constantly renewed.

At the end of April, the priory park hosts a festival of peonies, Chinese or Japanese, shrubs that the gardener’s hand has left untouched, cultivars to which it has added breadth. At the end of May, the park celebrates roses and, at the end of summer, hydrangeas. The unchanging sculpture by Romanian artist Christian Breazu watches over the sheep grazing in the meadow at the end of the park.

Hubert Treuille, man of the world

Born in Paris in 1919, Hubert Treuille, a Polytechnique graduate and Schneider engineer, was not, at first glance, destined to become a nature-loving nomad. And yet, this physicist by training, a pupil of Joliot-Curie and builder of the first fork-lift trucks in France, never stopped exploring the world, so fascinated was he by its beauty.

An avid natural history draughtsman, he brought back travel journals and, above all, the finest specimens of trees and plants from his tent expeditions. To house this treasure trove, in 1967 he and his wife acquired the priory at Orchaise. Hubert Treuille did not conceive this park as a collection, but as a harmonious place, conducive to knowledge and travel. This is undoubtedly what attracts visitors from all over the world.

Fashion in the Garden

From the handkerchief tree in the water lily pond to rhododendrons and rare plants, visitors rediscover the beauty of nature through its colors, scents and curiosities. The Parc du Prieuré d’Orchaise is more than just a place to stroll; it’s a proposal from a passionate man: a botanical, geographical and, above all, sensory journey.

Today, the park is enjoying a new lease of life thanks to the expert hands of its gardeners. The park’s creator is delighted with the new projects on the horizon. “Botanical art has evolved, fashion has invited itself into gardens, we want to bring that touch while taking care to preserve the history of the place.”

Rent the priory for a stay

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