At Versailles, I loved walking through the groves just to the west of the palace. Full size mature trees and shrubs are clipped to create living canyons in green. The trees form the sides of beautiful avenues that radiate in straight lines from key points, and represent total control over nature. But the real surprise is that if you stop to look closely through the clipped walls you can spy completely natural woodland. To peek inside is to see a soft and dreamy landscape that is a sharp contrast to the hard exterior. It amazed me that many people seemed to walk through these straight clipped avenues without realizing that another world existed just a few feet away. While it may seem that this type of feature is not relevant to gardens today, there is power in the surprise of contrasting elements.
