Pergolas, pillars and pencil cypress - Le Clos du Peyronnet, Menton, France The garden of William Waterfield

Charles Quest-Ritson visits the legendary English Riviera garden

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CLOS DU PEYRONNET is renowned as the best English garden on the French Riviera. It surrounds a handsome Belle Epoque villa at the eastern end of the town of Menton, in the upmarket district of Garavan. The Italian frontier and the three-star Mirazur— named last year as Best Restaurant by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants website—are no more than 500 yards away. The property has been owned and developed by super-plantsman William Waterfield and his family for more than a century and, over the past 50 years, has acquired near-legendary fame among garden-lovers all over the world. The homage of a COUNTRY LIFE article is long overdue.

The property was bought by William’s grandparents Derick and Barbara Waterfield in 1912. Derick had abandoned a promising career in the Indian Civil Service on the insistence of his wealthy wife, but, as did many old India hands, the couple recoiled from the cold and gloom of the English winter. Menton had a large population of over-wintering Englishry at that time—their lives revolved around the tennis club, the lending library, the Anglican Church and endless At Homes. For nearly 30 years, the Waterfields wintered at Menton and spent summers in Staffordshire.