{"id":7548,"date":"2011-10-02T08:38:29","date_gmt":"2011-10-02T06:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.breigh.com\/wordpress\/?p=7548"},"modified":"2011-10-02T14:09:21","modified_gmt":"2011-10-02T12:09:21","slug":"review-le-jardin-de-saint-adrien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/archives\/7548","title":{"rendered":"Review: Le Jardin de Saint Adrien"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the same day that my husband and I visited Salagou<\/a> and Moureze<\/a> with my mother-in-law, we also went to visit Le Jardin de Saint Adrien<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a beautiful privately owned garden that was created from the ruins of an old rock quarry.\u00a0 It is actually someone\u2019s back yard!\u00a0 In the summer months they open it up as a public garden for people to view it, and we were there just at the right time of year.<\/p>\n

My MIL had been there previously with some friends and really liked it, so we decided to make this our last stop for the day.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t get as many photos as I would have liked, it was the hottest part of the day and the sun was blazing, but I got the most important bits.<\/p>\n

\"gardens\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"gardens4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"gardens2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"gardens3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By the time we arrived, we had run out of water and were all totally parched and warm.\u00a0 The plan was to visit the gardens, have a drink and a bite to eat and then head out.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t go quite according to plan though.<\/p>\n

Before we paid to get in, we double checked that they had a little caf\u00e9 where we could get a drink, and were told that they did.\u00a0 So we paid and headed into the gardens. We decided that before we even bothered walking around that we’d look for the caf\u00e9, but when we got there all the tables had been pushed back with stacks of pizzas on them and some women were there pouring juice. My MIL asked them where we could buy drinks, and the woman pouring the juice acted like we were a total nuisance.\u00a0 She said that they were busy and the caf\u00e9 wasn\u2019t open.<\/p>\n

Uhhh\u2026 well we were after asking that specifically before we went in, and we were all so thirsty and tired by that point that we had no patience for this at all. My MIL continued trying to talk to the lady, asking if there was any way we could even get a glass of water, and she pretty much told us to piss off.\u00a0 Nice!\u00a0\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t even seen the gardens by this point but I was already set to leave.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, my MIL is not the type to just let something like this go. She went outside of the caf\u00e9 and found a guy who looked like he was in charge and told him about the response we\u2019d gotten from the lady inside.\u00a0 He explained to her that they were setting up for a tour group that was there to see a concert (we could see the large group of people on the other side of the gardens) and continued to tell her how it was inconvenient that we were there looking for drinks while they were starting to set up for this party.<\/p>\n

Boy did he pick the wrong woman to mess with.\u00a0 My MIL then proceeded to tear a strip off him and ask how inconvenient can it be to give people who paid to enter the gardens a glass of water in that kind of heat?\u00a0 I mean, she really gave him a what for.\u00a0 Then he said if we waited until the group came around we could probably mix into the crowd and get a drink then.\u00a0 So basically, crash the party.\u00a0 I could do that!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when we walked around the gardens.\u00a0 We were all so stunned, pissed off and warm that while we did still see the beauty in the place, a big part of it was spoiled for us.\u00a0 I took some photos but by the time we got part way around the garden we saw the party gathering to get their food and drinks, so we kind of motored through the rest of the place so we could go get our drinks.<\/p>\n

\"Le<\/a><\/p>\n

When we went into the caf\u00e9 area, they had orange juice that they were filling glasses half way with and then filling the rest with water.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if they thought the juice was too expensive or what but at that point we didn\u2019t care, it was wet!\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t nearly enough though, I put mine back with one gulp and was still dying of thirst but I just did not want to face that heinous bitch again.\u00a0 She was busy pouring drinks at this little table so my MIL had tried to pour herself a glass of water, and the woman literally wrenched the bottle of water out of her hands.<\/p>\n

I wonder, did the people spend so much on this garden that they aren\u2019t getting the return they had hoped to get?\u00a0 Are they THAT broke that they need to squabble over WATER?!\u00a0 We had even told them we\u2019d be happy with tap water and were still told to get lost, so I\u2019m not sure what the problem was, to be honest.<\/p>\n

I think my MIL was more disappointed than anyone.\u00a0 She was so excited to show us this place, as she\u2019d really loved it the first time she went and she knew I\u2019d love taking photos there.\u00a0\u00a0 We could tell that she was really angry and disappointed with how our visit had gone, but it wasn\u2019t her fault.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure that if you go on any regular afternoon when there is nothing else going on, it\u2019s great.\u00a0 You can probably sit and have a drink, then comfortably stroll around the gardens, just like we had intended.<\/p>\n

If you go when there is some sort of group there or activity going on you are screwed, because I just don\u2019t think they are set up to handle those kinds of situations.\u00a0 The words \u201cbiting off more than you can chew\u201d come to mind.<\/p>\n

In the end, we decided we\u2019d had enough of the place and ended up taking our empty bottles from the car and filling them up in a bathroom outside the gardens.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s safe to say, I\u2019d never make it in the desert.<\/p>\n

All in all, this is a beautiful garden and it\u2019s amazing what they have done with it.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s worth seeing if you are in the area, but I wouldn\u2019t count on them for anything and if you are there in the dead of summer like we were? – \u00a0Don\u2019t trust the people at the entrance, and bring your own drinks! \u00a0Also, be sure to check their opening hours as they aren’t your usual 9-5 type of hours, it’s more like a few hours once or twice a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the same day that my husband and I visited Salagou and Moureze with my mother-in-law, we also went to visit Le Jardin de Saint Adrien.\u00a0 It\u2019s a beautiful privately owned garden that was created from the ruins of an old rock quarry.\u00a0 It is actually someone\u2019s back yard!\u00a0 In the summer months they open …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,39],"tags":[191,65,880,90,57],"class_list":["post-7548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-tantrums-rants","category-travel","tag-customer-service","tag-family","tag-france","tag-idiots","tag-rants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7548"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7557,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7548\/revisions\/7557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}