In this timeless place, an original approach was initiated: to protect, welcome and preserve for future generations all the rare or endangered species of the world's mountains.

Every year, in November and March (according to the cycle of species) the Arboretum introduces new species on its site. Over time, this living tree museum has been enriched with many deciduous and coniferous trees from the mountain level. Some species are rare and/or need to be protected, such as Japanese larch or Himalayan bamboos... Nearly 400 trees have been planted since its creation in 1988, including 137 acclimatised exotic species.

Fontana Rosa is a historic garden situated on the Avenue Blasco Ibáñez in Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, on the French Riviera. The Spanish writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez began to build it from 1922 on, and he set up home here with his second wife, Elena, and died there in 1928.

Behind a heavy portal surmounted by a rectangular moulded pediment on which stand out the ceramic portraits of Balzac and Dickens surrounding that of Cervantes, barred by a long entablature resting on six escutcheons of fruit and roses, lies one of the most original gardens in Menton, perhaps also one of the rarest, a strange and delirious creation of an extravagant character.

Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, also called villa Île-de-France, is a French seaside villa located at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera. The villa was designed by the French architect Aaron Messiah, and constructed between 1905 and 1912 by Baroness Béatrice de Rothschild.

This garden comprises a high flowerbed in front of the Villa, lawns decorated with flame-topped urns and large Italian Renaissance urns called “cardinal vases”, a large oval flowerbed with a channel and ornamental ponds, and an exotic touch provided by palm trees and the scent of agaves. 

To add to the fairytale feel, musical fountains spring from the large pond like a grand aquatic ballet. 

This is where Cubism was born on this 7 hectares rocky plateau: an operative quarry for Aix monuments until the eighteenth century. Cezanne discovers the place in a state of neglect: the vegetation has reclaimed, but the ocher rock has kept the shape of men’s work. In the striking architecture of this exceptional nature, the artist gives birth between 1895 and 1904 of world-renowned works, such as “The Red Rock”.

Around the Cezanne’s shed, the laid out path in the shade of tall pines will let you discover the motifs painted by Cezanne, its famous red rocks, geology of the plateau and the quarrying producing stones used to build Aix monuments from antiquity to the eighteenth century. Cezanne painted 11 oils and 16 watercolors in this landscape where mineral and vegetal are complementary.