Although located in France, just inside the French and Italian border, the unmistakable Italian influence is apparent as soon as you arrive at the Orangery which resembles a Roman Villa. Yet on a lower level, you would find yourself in a leafy room surrounded by stately European plane trees, changing the mood to that of a formal French garden enclosed by low boxwood hedges that form a natural border for camellias and species tulips.

Whenever possible, old stone was fashioned into architectural features throughout the garden. Magnificently and sensitively, Mark King portrays the old stone entry passage into the terraced hillside and garden which lay beyond. The superb structure of the garden was the perfect opportunity for the many exotic plantings put in by Major Lawrence Johnston, whose refined aesthetic sense was equaled by his formidable architectural abilities. La Serre de la Madone was created as his winter garden, and he transformed this Mediterranean hillside into a place of enchantment, with Italian overtones, delighting all who saw it.

Captivated by the extraordinary stillness and grandeur of this renowned garden and Villa, King comes to know this profound place more intimately through the radiant impressions he creates through his intuitive and sensitive palette selections and his own mastery of his media.