What Made Our 2025 Normandy Garden Trip Memorable?

Hello! Your garden-loving pal - Jacqueline from Carex Tours here.

I'm still basking in joy thinking about our September garden tour through Normandy!

Fourteen Carexplorers spent nine days travelling through the French countryside, visiting private gardens and grand châteaux estates. And I was the lucky one living it through their stories and pictures.

Now that we're bringing this tour back in 2026, I want to show you exactly what makes it so special.

All aboard the little Jardins Etretat tram

Where Every Garden Becomes Your New Favorite

As one Carexplorer put it: “We started off and said ‘oh, that was my favorite garden’ and then the next day we were like ‘Oh, that was my favorite.’”

Normandy is home to a great variety of gardens (believe it or not!):

Formal French estates with perfectly manicured hedges and elaborate topiary that looks like waves you could ride.

Riding the topiary wave at Domaine du Champ de Bataille

Whimsical contemporary designs where you'd turn a corner and find goofy faces staring back at you - the kind of playful surprises that make you laugh out loud in a garden.

Spot the difference!

Our garden admirers at Jardins d’Étretat

Romantic English borders bursting with late-season blooms

"I didn't really know how you could spend 10 days looking at gardens, but I was very pleasantly surprised. There's just so much more to gardens than my brain knew about," shared another garden traveler.

The tour started with a couple of rainy days, but our garden enthusiasts “couldn’t have cared less” – as you can see. They actually appreciated the atmosphere that the rain brought with it.

“I was glad about the rain because the wind made the ornamental grasses move so beautifully.” - Leora

On Day 3, at Jardin Plume the sun finally honored the group with its presence.

The creators behind the gardens

What really made this trip special for our Carexplorers was meeting the actual garden creators:

“The garden owners and those who take care of them went out of their way for us.” - Saunie

Together with the owner of Jardin Plume

Jardin de Castillon tour guided by the owner Hubert Sainte-Beuve

Our Carexplorers at Bois de Moutier together with Antoine Bouchayer-Mallet, and head gardener Yoveen Peignet

At Bois des Moutiers, Antoine gave our group a deeply personal tour of his family’s Arts and Crafts masterpiece. He showed them trees planted the day he was born. He shared stories about his grandmother and the garden’s history.

“You could really tell that it was his passion. It was a very spiritual feeling to me when he was explaining about the garden and his grandmother. He answered all our questions and gave us a lot of personal attention. That garden was once in a lifetime,” shared Aline.

The garden crew shared many meals together, including at Château di Miromesnil with the owner, Natalie.

“It’s so fun to eat in the château, you know, in one of the rooms that looked like something out of a gothic novel.” - Karen

Not every meal was a winner (looking at you, mysterious salmon-potato creation), but moments like these made the group bond even more.

“They made us lunch with ingredients that they had grown in the garden. And it was just very personal”, shared Aline.

This is what you can’t find on a typical tour: intimate access to private gardens, meals with the people who create and tend to them, and time to ask about what inspires their work.

Beyond the gardens

Between the garden visits, our garden travelers had several chances to experience a bit more of French culture and history.

At Omaha Beach, a 94-year-old gentleman who lived through D-Day shared his memories with them.

“He remembered the Americans coming up and he learned English from them. It was a very humbling and touching experience.” - Aline

The group climbed to the top of Mont Saint-Michel (yes, every single one of them did it!).

And even though it was like Times Square on New Year’s Eve, everyone enjoyed it. There are some tourist places that are just too good to be skipped.

Another quite busy place not to be missed was Monet’s garden in Gyverny. For many, this was a bucket-list moment, despite the crowds.

“I love Monet’s work and to see it all in person was just very fulfilling. It’s fun to see where he was, where he was sitting when he painted his pictures. It’s just hard to believe that you can experience that,” shared Karen.

Our garden crew stopped in dreamy villages like Honfleur.

Say ‘cheeeese’… or should that be ‘camembert’?

Our Carexplorers tasted calvados at a local distillery.

“I didn’t really know how beautiful the countryside is, and all the farm land and villages we stopped in,” said Saunie.

Are you hooked on Normandy yet?

Well then we have news for you!

In 2026, you can experience it all for yourself. Our team is excited to be heading back to all these gardens, to show you the cream of the crop that Normandy has to offer.

*Many of these gorgeous photos are courtesy of Lea G., one of our September Carexplorers who happens to be a wonderful photographer. Thank you for letting us relive the trip through your lens!*

Check Out Carex Upcoming 2026 Garden Trips