On the height of its glory, Lescure’s park must have been a real beauty, perfected – J.J. Rousseau style – to find peace and matter to think of. One of the folly remains is a large stone basin, right in the middle between the chapel and the château. From day one, Thomas made its restoration a priority and he dreamt out loud about water sprouting from a fountain again. Last spring, he got to work. It hasn’t been an easy ride.

First, there was ever-optimistic Thomas trying to do everything by hand and on his own. From de-rooting trees and shrubs that were occupying the basin to removing the damaged stone floor. Thankfully, he ended up hiring an excavator and welcomed the helping hands of friends and local craftsmen. Next up was weeks of research, deciding the best way to make the basin waterproof again. And there was this one dark night. Thomas worked all hours to finish the sealing before the deadline of rain that had been predicted. Just as he was contemplating giving up, he was allegedly joined…by a little green frog! Exhaustion causing hallucinations or Lescure working its magic? Whatever you choose to believe, French Kermie kept the man going and he finished the job in time for the rains.

Water Lilies

As an aesthetic touch we planted pink water lilies in the basin. I’m learning a lot of new French words and ‘nenuphar’, water lily, is my favourite one to date. The plants stem from a friend’s garden in Friesland and Thomas transported them from the very north of the Netherlands all the way to Lescure in a bucket with mud and water. They were near-dead when they finally made it here, but we noticed one little leaf sprouting since the transplantation, so we have good hope for a lush aquatic garden.