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The Jardin à la Française is a unique Culture building of the French Imperial civilization in Civilization VII.
- Base yields:
- +5
Culture.
- +5
- Adjacency:
Strategy[]
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Civilopedia entry[]
The Enlightenment was defined by the human desire to impose a certain kind of rationality and will upon nature. If all natural processes are rational, then natural beauty could be bent to reason’s will. This was exemplified in the French formal garden (contrasting the Romantic landscape garden, which permits nature to run wild in accordance with Romantic ideals). Near the chateaus of the French elite, hedges are coaxed into strict geometric shapes and dotted with faux Roman sculptures. Within these wide lanes, nobility can stroll. Feats of hydrology and horticulture create an entirely artificial landscape out of nature. The most famous example was the gardens at Versailles, 800 hectares in size, laid out along the axes of the compass.
Though the gardens of Versailles and the grand chateaus fell out of favor during the Revolution, Napoleon III revived the concept, albeit making gardens available to the public, rather than the cloistered, wigged nobility. Paintings during France’s Belle Époque often depict the bourgeoisie strolling as the aristocracy may have strolled before.