The Rose des Prairies, in the Puy-de-Dôme

If you like roses, there is a garden entirely dedicated to them in the Puy-de-Dôme, in Charbonnières-les-Varennes. La Rose des prairies is the work and life of Catherine Chabry and her husband, Jean-Pierre.

Between Catherine and the rose, it is the story of a passion born in a garden, that of her grandmother. Since then, Catherine’s life has always been rosy. To the point of planting 1600 different rosebushes in his Auvergne garden, and devoting 3 hectares to observation, experimentation and cultivation.

Catherine is also a rose designer: “I sometimes hybridize roses. At the moment, I am working on creating a rose for Antoine Serre, a resident of the commune, who fell in Mali on November 25, 2019. Antoine was a charming boy and I would like to give its name to a red rose, symbolizing the blood shed for nothing. I also created a rose called ‘Oscar’, named after a little handicapped boy who came to visit the garden with his mother…”

After creating a rose garden in the south of the Puy-de-Dôme department, the Chabrys moved some of their roses to Charbonnières-les-Varennes about twenty years ago.

The land is fresh, the soil is good, enriched by the horses that grazed on this large land. It was the horses who decided on the main layout of the garden: “They had traced a central alley, a little serpentine. It was a pretty natural design and we kept it. Then, we traced small alleys and planted our roses with monochrome colors. The colors of the roses respond to each other .”

Walking along the alleys of the Rose des Prairies when the rosebushes are in bloom is an extraordinary experience. The place is magical and the scents envelop you.

And when it comes to perfume, Catherine is inexhaustible: “I really like ‘Abraham Darby’ for its scents of peach, grapefruit and cut hay. How not to be satisfied by three fragrances in a single perfume? I also have a weakness for ‘Duchess of Rohan’ which smells of violets…”

“The ‘Senegal’ rose smells of raspberry, beeswax and lemon all at the same time…”

Catherine Chabry

at franceinfo

La Rose des Prairies, in Charbonnières-les-Varennes in Puy-de-Dôme, is open every afternoon except Thursday. Free visit or guided visit by appointment.