I had just finished eating brunch in Old Montreal and had decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood, when all of a sudden I saw a small park nearby. Curiosity summoned me towards the trees, but as I got closer I discovered what looked like a small entrance to a pretty garden. It was a beautiful garden, albeit small in size. It was full of greenery and trees, with even the walls covered in more greenery.
The entrance is like something out of Alice in Wonderland or a beautiful hedge maze.
As soon as I entered I was mesmerized. There were flowers, vegetables, topiaries, vines growing on all of the walls, beautiful brick buildings surrounding two of the walls, and on the other side, stairs to the entrance of a beautiful manor.
This secret garden in Montreal is The Governor’s Garden, and the Manor is The Château Ramezay, the first historic site and museum of Montreal.
It is a lovely garden in style of New France and there are three equal sections. As you enter the garden you will first find the “Kitchen Garden”, followed by a “Pleasure Garden”, and finally an Orchard, with herbs and medicinal plants along the circumference.
Its layout offers a return to the 18th century and an opportunity to recall the beauty and usefulness of plants”, says the designer of the Governor’s Garden, Robert Desjardins.
If like me, you love gardens, I highly recommend you go and admire the garden, and also to appreciate the fact that in the 18th century this was double in space and was truly used for its purpose. Utilizing every single thing planted in it and enjoying the pleasure garden while having parties in the grounds.
The entrance to the garden is totally free, however if you wish to enter the Museum of Montreal there is a nominal fee.
For more information, visit: https://www.chateauramezay.qc.ca/en/information/
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