[Louisa]

One of Provence's most famous gardens is now open to visits for small groups, this is Dominique Lafourcade's (woman designer)  Les Confines, the place she and her husband fixed up over the last twenty years.  It has become famous for its long rill flanked by olive trees in big terracotta pots, but there is a lot more to it than this. this property can also be rented in the summer months.  To co-ordinate any kind of visit or rental, you need to contact her husband's studio,
Lafourcade Studio, 10 boulevard Victor Hugo 13210 Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, 04 90 92 10 14. www.architecture-lafourcade.com.

[Alisdair]

When the MGS met in southern France in 2006 Louise had kindly arranged for us to visit another private garden designed by Dominique Lafourcade, and Dominique showed us round herself. I loved the way she had so cleverly integrated it into the surrounding scenery, and several witty details always bringing a smile. She has a great talent for marrying beauty with practicality, too - as in this delightful rill, bringing the house's grey water from a pool just outside the kitchen, down through this herb garden, to a lower ornamental pool which in turn irrigates the vegetable garden: