The gardens

Fig trees laden with sun-ripened fruit. Tamarisk covered with small pink flowers. Fragrant lavender bushes. Wisteria running along one of the building’s walls. Savory, thyme and rosemary reminiscent of the surrounding garrigue scrubland. Discover all this botanical diversity and more in our luxury hotel’s Mediterranean dry garden, as you step through the doorway to La Maison d’Ulysse.

Assisted by a landscape architect and the books of Olivier Filippi, a botanist specializing in Mediterranean gardens, Gauthier designed a garden suited to the soil and the climate of Provence The focus here is on perennials, shrubs and climbing plants which are resistant to drought, wind, limestone and cold, as the winters can be severe in Languedoc.

Sit on a garden table and enjoy a mint tea. Gather on the pétanque court for a game with friends, or just sit beneath the majestic century-old oaks, which in the height of summer bring us the cool shade we desire.

In the Cévennes, from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century, some farms specialised in breeding silk worms for textile businesses in Lyon. The garden was planted with white mulberries, cultivated for their leaves to provide food for the worms.

This mulberry plantation, which had been gradually abandoned, was saved by Guy and Gauthier, who wanted to keep the unique and wild character of the place. Today, nature is thriving again and new plants are appearing of their own accord.