Located just few miles from Geneva, the Garden of Five Senses enjoys a privileged place : on the French shores of Lake Geneva, in the heart of the medieval village of Yvoire, member of the Association of the Most Beautiful Villages of France.
In the 80s, creators of this garden wanted to upgrade the castle former kitchen garden. They wanted to create the atmosphere of medieval mazes : In these mazes the aim is not to find the way out but to choose your own way, as in life… And curiously, the family motto is Festina Lente - Make haste slowly, the same as the gardener’s patron saint !
For 25 years, gardeners have looked after more than 1300 varieties of plants with passion and love.
In 2004, the garden is Classified as a "Remarkable Garden" by the French Ministry of Culture.
The garden is organised into many separate themed gardens.
- An Alpine garden devoted to mountains: gentians,dwarf thistle,colt’s-foot …
- A small woodland garden with a ferns collection and some shade plants
- The Woven garden where white and fragrant roses contrast with simple oats in a checkerboard pattern.
- A cloister surrounded by a hornbean hedge contains four square herb gardens growing both medicinal and toxic herbs, and a small fountain.
- The other five gardens : have been planted to stimulate each of the senses. Visitors can smell perfumed flowers or suprising fragrant leaves, touch some particular foliages (soft, velvety, rough, prickly, sticky…), contemplate, hear birds and finally they can see fruits and vegetables in the garden of taste and imagine flavours.
- A garden of poetry and dream.
Author: Bob Saunders.
Maps and information about the gardens are available in English and other languages.
For children there is a free quiz to help them learn whilst they enjoy the gardens
A beautiful shop with special products about gardens and Savoy.
By car
• A6 then A40 (5:30 hours from Paris)
• A42 or A43 then A40 (2 hours from Lyon)
• A41 (50 minutes from Annecy, 2 hours from Grenoble)
• Exit n°14 Annemasse or n°15 Thonon-Evian
• Follow the signs for Thonon-Evian as far as Douvaine and then D60 and D25 ‘les bords du lac’ – Yvoire
• The Garden is in the heart of the village, the centre is pedestrianised and there are many car parks around the centre.
By boat
There is the CGN’s boat service, connecting Yvoire, Genev