Exposition Florale in Verteuil

Yesterday, set in the grounds of a very French chateau, in a tucked away corner of rural France I found myself in a very British garden show. Welcome to Little Chelsea en Verteuil. 

The Chateau at Verteuil

The stable block

The theme was the British garden (!), many people were sporting bowler hats (the French are convinced we Brits wear them all the time) and Union flags and those stands that had made an effort to create a ‘display’ were decorated with red telephone boxes and tables laid for ‘tea’ with teacups and tea pots. 

Anyone for tea?

Can you spot the bowler hat?

Even the weather was very British with heavy showers and sunny spells and we were all wrapped up with coats and scarfs - in May!

Nice, but not inspiring

Look, blue sky! 

I will admit to feeling geographically confused, especially as a number of the stands were local British owned nurseries and many of the browsers and buyers were, like us, British too. Now while I don’t have a problem with this I will be honest and say I was a little disappointed. By the weather (Grey May), by the fact it didn’t feel like I was in France but mostly that there was nothing really inspiring in terms of plants that you just ‘have’ to get and can’t wait to get home and dig a hole for. Maybe this is because we are more organised this year and have grown more flowers and vegetables from seed, plus we also added quite a few nice bits from the recent plant swap in the village. This is a direct contrast from a similar event we went to last June, the fetes des plantes et du jardin du Domaine de Péré, when the only reason we stopped buying was because we ran out of money! Never mind, it will be held again on June 8^th and 9^th and I hope it is as good as last year.