Jardin botanique du Château de Vauville, Botanical garden and historic monument in La Hague, France

The Jardin botanique du Château de Vauville covers over 40,000 m² on the grounds of the Château de Vauville near Beaumont-Hague. Created from 1947 by Éric and Nicole Pellerin, it holds more than 900 semi-tropical species from the Southern Hemisphere, among them aloes, Echium pininana, Dimorphotheca and palms. Hardy plants are massed into windbreak hedges of eucalyptus and bamboo sheltering the tenderest species, and water from the stream that once irrigated the fields feeds ponds of Crinum and royal fern.

Éric and Nicole Pellerin created the garden in 1947 on a windswept site within 300 metres of the Atlantic, on the Cotentin peninsula near Beaumont-Hague. The North Atlantic Drift of the Gulf Stream warms this coast, letting southern-hemisphere plants grow at this latitude. It was listed as a monument historique in 1992 and labelled Jardin remarquable in 2004.

The garden is also called the Jardin du Voyageur, the traveller's garden, a name that points to its southern-hemisphere plants. Its creator Éric Pellerin wanted them to grow freely, without constraint, in what he called an apparent poetic disorder. The stream that once watered the fields now feeds ponds holding Crinum and royal fern.

The garden lies within 300 metres of the Atlantic on a windy site, so windbreaks of eucalyptus and bamboo shelter the plantings. It opens in the afternoons during the warmer months and charges an admission fee. Paths follow the natural forms of the terrain.

The garden lies within 300 metres of the Atlantic, where the North Atlantic drift of the Gulf Stream warms the north-west coast of the Cap de la Hague. This lets plants unusual at this latitude grow in the open. Its creator, Éric Pellerin, wanted them to grow freely, in what the sources call an apparent poetic disorder.