FRENCH GARDENS : i6th AND EARLY 17TH CENTURIES 79 



the parterres of Nicholas d'Yveteaux and of Conrart, described in the Clelie 

 of Mile, de Scudery, where the founders of the Academic Frangaise first 

 met together. Many of the great abbeys of the seventeenth century had 

 parterres that rivalled the large palaces in their magnificence. The royal 

 abbey of St. Denis had in additon to a most elaborate -parterre de broderie 



THE TUILERIES GARDEN FROM GOMBOUST's PLAN, l6\2. 



within the cloisters, another splendid parterre garden with long avenues 

 stretched out in the form of a gigantic cross. 



The two most important Parisian gardens were those of the Tuilerles 

 and the Luxembourg ; the first was laid out by Catherine de Medici, in 

 the latter part of the sixteenth century, and the second by Marie de Medici 

 some years later. Both princesses delighted in their gardens, and in their 

 childhood's days had revelled in the charming country villas of their family 

 at Pratolino and Castello in the neighbourhood of Florence, and also in the 

 magnificent Boboli garden adjoining the Pitti Palace. It was therefore only 

 natural that in later life they should have shown so great a taste for horticulture. 



