Pleurtuit
DOMAINE DU MONTMARIN
Gardens reflecting souls
Interview by Elisabeth Blanchet.
Photo credits :
Thibault de Ferrand, Elisabeth Blanchet, David Marion, Isabelle Leprevost-Trebon, Ronan Crespin.
At the Domaine du Montmarin, on the banks of the Rance, the gardens aren’t just visited, they are experienced. Thibault de Ferrand, sixth generation in a family of botany enthusiasts, describes himself as the “caretaker of the estate,” but above all, he is a dedicated gardener–craftsman, who tends to his gardens with care and shares their story with passion.
Thibault oversees the family estate: six hectares of gardens listed as Historic Monuments and a cider apple orchard. Facing the splendid 1761 Malouinière where he grew up, three generations of garden styles,French formal, English landscape, and Mediterranean rockery , flow elegantly toward the Rance, their natural vanishing point. Nothing is set in stone in this park, opened to the public in 1987 by Thibault’s parents. “The garden lives, shifts, resists… or not.” Facing droughts, storms, climate change, and tight budgets, he relies on a small, devoted team, Hervé in the garden, Grégoire in the orchard, and Isabelle wherever needed, and on the unwavering support of his parents. Their guiding principle: to care for the living, adapt without forcing, and work with the garden, not against it.
A walk through the gardens with Thibault and Isabelle
To keep the heritage alive, they offer a wide range of activities: guided tours, weddings, private events, craft cider, a shop, nurseries, and a Christmas market. This season brings starlit banquet dinners (Aug 2, 9, 16) and a pop-up tearoom beneath the French garden’s magnolia. Thibault is also gently preparing to open the Malouinière for intimate visits in 2026, ahead of the gardens’ 40th anniversary in 2027.
The vegetable garden. « Let’s say it’s the happiest consequence of the 1999 storm. It was a planned space, but the damage caused by the storm to the nursery and the old kiwi orchard that used to occupy the area sped things up. (Both were destroyed.) It’s now the vegetable garden, the rose garden, the laboratory, and an open-ground nursery ».
"A tale of Malouinière and gardens, still being written with time and care."
« The rock garden, one of the gardens created at the
initiative of a family member, Yves Bazin de Jessey, my
great-great-granfather, in 1921 ».
My favorite season in the park: first the cyclamen,
then autumn.
But here a beech tree is hanging on…
The agapanthus…a whole story!
A trio of male Ginkgo Biloba trees.
Planted in 1888 during the restoration of Le Montmarin, after our family arrived in 1885.
It was the period when the English-style park was created,
under the influence of the Bühler brothers.
The southern part of the park, on the nursery side. Exotic Brittany!
February 2021. Magical!
DOMAINE DU MONTMARIN
28 Rue de Cancaval
35730 Pleurtuit
02 99 88 58 79
thibault.deferrand@gmail.com
www.domaine-du-montmarin.com
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Instagram : domainedumontmarin