The South of France 2025 tour will transform your gardening dreams. With one foot in a very romantic but still highly inspiring past, and one foot in the opportunity-filled current moment, this tour will take one hundred years of gardening evolution and propel you into new zones of empowerment and inspiration.

From gardens that were lovingly developed over three generations, to the brand-new professional creations of designer James Basson, or the still ground-breaking work of fabric designer Nicole de Vesian, this itinerary is designed to fill your heart and head with the possibilities of gardens that own and celebrate their tough conditions.

Please note, the final itinerary is subject to change.

DAY 1 | Saturday 10th May

Our tour starts with pre-dinner drinks, followed by a welcome dinner during which we’ll map out the unforgettable days ahead!

Meals included: Celebratory meal and pre-dinner drinks

Accommodation: Anantara Plaza Hotel, Nice

DAY 2 | Sunday 11th May

We kick off with what is widely considered to be the best of all English gardens on the French Riviera - Le Clos du Peyronnet. The English, of course, made a huge splash in this part of the world, as did the Americans, particularly in the early 20th Century, and their legacy is everywhere evident. Le Clos du Peyronnet was gardened by three generations of Waterfields, and magically celebrates its sloping site, achieving the most perfect balance of the built and the planted, and of a collector’s mentality with a designers eye.

Then after lunch we’ll head to Serre de la Madone, the warm-climate playground of Captain Lawrence Johnston, the creator of the now much more famous Hidcote Manor. Back in the day, Serre de la Madone was considered the greater of the two. Now well past its best, it still carries something of the glamour, albeit faded, of those early days that have so shaped the vision for contemporary gardens in this part of the world.

Gardens: Le Clos du Peyronnet & Serre de la Madone

Meals included: Lunch in Menton (location tbc)

Accommodation: Anantara Plaza Hotel, Nice

DAY 3 | Monday 12th May

Designer Gilles Clement is revered in France, held in the same awe as Roberto Burle Marx in Brazil. This morning’s garden, The Domaine du Rayol, was designed by Clement to demonstrate the beauty and design-potential of plants from Mediterranean climates from around the world.  There are areas devoted to the Canary Islands, South Africa, California, Australia, and, of course, to the local flora. Never setting out with a particular aesthetic goal in mind, Clement states that ‘the gardens of the Domaine du Rayol are continuously evolving in a constant state of anticipation.’

After free time for lunch in the garden, we’ll head back to Nice via La Plaine des Maures for some orchid and wildflower spotting. It’s highly instructive to see lavender (for instance) growing in the wild, and therefore how it (and a whole lot of other woody plants of this climate) might be best used in the garden.

Destinations: Domaine du Rayol & La Plaine des Maures

Accommodation: Anantara Plaza Hotel, Nice

DAY 4 | Tuesday 13th May

We leave Nice this morning, heading west to Antibes, where multi-Chelsea-award-winner James Basson will show us a private garden of his design. Once leaning heavily on perennials, it is now largely gravelled and planted with a mediterranean palette. James is actually a landscape painter, turned landscape designer, and this is very evident in this planting.

Then we’ll head into charming Antibes for free time, either for some shopping, a glance around at some of the interesting gardening, a swim in the sparkling Mediterranean, or, perhaps, a visit to the Picasso museum.

Late in the afternoon we’ll proceed to the glorious Aix-en-Provence, where we’ll spend the next few nights.

Gardens: Private garden by designer James Basson

Meals included: Dinner in Aix-en-Provence (location tbc)

Accommodation: Grand Hotel ROI René Aix-en-Provence

DAY 5 | Wednesday 14th May

This morning starts in Avignon, where we’ll take in the glories of the Palais des Papes - home of seven consecutive popes in the 14th Century, and the largest Gothic palace in the world.

Then in the afternoon, we’ll visit the Abbeye Saint-André, always considered one of the loveliest gardens in France, but now further enhanced, and made relevant to us, by the addition of areas of wonderfully loose Mediterranean planting. It’s a totally enchanting garden around a ruin - a kind of  Mediterranean Ninfa!

Gardens: Palais des Papes & Abbeye Saint-André

Accommodation: Grand Hotel ROI René Aix-en-Provence

DAY 6 | Thursday 15th May

This morning we’ll head to Marseilles, and specifically to the remarkable Fort Saint-Jean, upon which a recent redevelopment incorporated planting by Olivier Fillipi and botanist Véronique Mure, around an apparently endless series of ancient courtyards. 

Then we’ll cross the contemporary footbridge for lunch on the fabulous rooftop of the Mucem Museum - the first national museum dedicated specifically to the civilisations of the Mediterranean. Then there’ll be free time in Marseilles for a good look at the museum, or a wander around the old harbour.

Gardens: Fort Saint-Jean

Meals included: Lunch at Museum Restaurant

Accommodation: Grand Hotel ROI René Aix-en-Provence

DAY 7 | Friday 16th May

Our morning starts with a wonderful private garden in the charming village of Maussane-les-Alpilles, designed by James Basson. Jame’s idea that ‘the space between plants’ is at least as important as the space occupied by them is perfectly exemplified here, with a remarkable palette of drought tolerant plants.

Close by is the strikingly contemporary winery Domaine De Métifiot, where we’ll head for lunch. It is itself within walking distance of the old hospital where Vincent Van Gogh was treated after cutting off his ear. Now a museum where we’ll spend the afternoon, the garden is still fully recognisable from Van Gogh’s many paintings executed while in residence.

Gardens: Private garden designed by James Basson & Van Gogh’s museum

Meals included: Lunch at Domaine De Métifiot

Accommodation: Grand Hotel ROI René Aix-en-Provence

DAY 8 | Saturday 17th May

La Louve is our destination this morning - the now iconic garden created Nicole de Vésian in her retirement from designing fabrics in Paris, eventually exclusively for Hermès. It’s impossible to underestimate the influence this quite small garden, largely utilising the very modest local flora, has had on gardens worldwide.

Then we’ll head back to Aix-en-Provence for some free time. There’s no such things as too much time in Aix!

Garden: La Louve

Accommodation: Grand Hotel ROI René Aix-en-Provence

DAY 9 | Sunday 18th May

This morning we depart from Aix and head further west still, to the canal-lined city of Sète, one of the most beautiful fishing and trading ports on the Mediterranean. 

But en route we’ll stop in for a wander through the architecturally remarkable streets and sites of Montpellier.

Meals included: Dinner in Sète (location tbc)

Accommodation: Le Grand Hotel, Sète

DAY 10 | Monday 19th May

Olivier Fillipi’s inspiring nursery is our destination this morning. Unfortunately the garden is undergoing a major overhaul in 2025, so our visit is limited to the nursery and its small attached demonstration garden. But it’s good to see the huge range of Mediterranean plants Olivier offers, many of which he has introduced into cultivation from the wild.

But our real goal today is the Château Capitoul, a resort that features severely dry planting on virtually pure rock and gravel. It’s enormously inspiring, and can’t help but set the imagination into overdrive with thoughts of similar treatments of our wonderful Australian flora.

Gardens: Olivier Fillipi’s nursery & Château Capitoul

Meals: Lunch at Château Capitoul

Accommodation: Le Grand Hotel, Sète

DAY 11 | Tuesday 20th May

This morning will be spent in transit, heading back east, for a lunch and a wander in the spectacular garden of the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild on Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.  With its signature pink Villa, this must be everyone’s ideal of early 20th Côte d’Azur opulence. You can almost hear the lingering echo of its extravagant parties.

Gardens: Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

Meals: Lunch at Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

Accommodation: Anantara Plaza Hotel, Nice

DAY 12 | Wednesday 21st May

We head out to the impossibly charming medieval village of Èze this morning, to visit it’s dramatic and brilliantly conceived Le Jardin Exotique. Gardens of cactus and succulents too often end up looking like a bizarre collection, but not this one! The site is stupendous, overlooking the entire coast, but that hasn’t led to lazy planting design. There are carefully chosen and beautifully cared-for plants tucked into every crevice and pocket of the great outcrop of rock on which this village was built.

You won’t want to leave Èze, so we’ll hang out here for lunch, then we’ll make our way back to Nice via the picturesque and fascinating walk along the boulevard of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, where the walls of every villa (including David Niven’s) are overhung with wonderfully pruned evergreen shrubs and strewn with flower-laden branches of bougainvillea.

Then tonights it’s farewell, with a dinner in which we’ll recount the tales and moments of insight and inspiration over the last twelve days.

Gardens: Le Jardin Exotique & the boulevard of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat

Meals: Farewell dinner

Accommodation: Anantara Plaza Hotel, Nice

DAY 13 | Thursday 22nd May

Check out of the hotel at leisure, and depart for home, or set out on further travels!