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Vaux-le-Vicomte : entretien d’un grand jardin classique, œuvre fondatrice du jardin à la française by Patrick BORGEOT and Alexandre de VOGÜÉ – Château de Bénouville
Vaux-le-Vicomte: maintaining a vast classical garden, a French formal garden foundation work
Day-to-day maintenance of the gardens of Vaux-le-Vicomte, located within the largest private property listed as a French Historic Monument, is a permanent challenge. Opening the gardens to the public can but render the head gardener and his team’s mission all the more complex. A modest budget, omnipresent regulations, throngs of visitors 7 days a week, the organisation of special events (targeting the general public or private clients)… demand that the head gardener and his team remain both extremely available and committed at all times. The same applies during necessary restoration work during which the project’s historic and economic characteristics need to be harmoniously considered in order to respect the work of art in its entirety, whilst ensuring realistic maintenance of the whole and, finally, ensuring that the profound nature of these gardens remains intact.
Patrick Borgeot
Since his father, grandfather and great grandfather were all gardeners, Patrick Borgeot’s vocation appeared evident. Following a BEPA (Professional Agricultural Diploma) and a few years’ experience in the family business, he created his own comapny in the field of gardening and green areas in 1987. Twenty years later, in 2007, aware of the increasing economic difficulties facing small companies, he decided to change direction and became Head Gardener of the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, hence perfectly combining his technical knowledge and his great interest in the particular period of gardening history that saw the emergence of formal gardens.
Alexandre de Vogüé
After spending his childhood in Vicomte and Paris (he graduated from the ISG business school), Alexandre de Vogüé completed his military service with the mountain infantry. After this experience, he became a mountain guide. For around 15 years, he took other mountaineering enthusiasts to the summits of the Alps, the Himalayas and the Andes cordillera. Since late 2010, he has joined the family-run estate at Vaux-le-Vicomte as Patronage and Communication Manager. The château currently welcomes around 300,000 visitors every year and is a stable business, although major restoration work does have a serious impact on the estate’s budgetary balance. The development of the Association des Amis, of which Alexandre de Vogüé is the Chairman, and the organisation of an ambitious patronage campaign have become an absolute necessity.