The French writer Stendhal called the Lot-et-Garonne region the Tuscany of France because of its brilliant golden summer light and red-roofed farmhouses. There are castles and vineyards, fields of sunflowers and corn, and dozens of quiet villages without a tourist in sight.
France - Lot-et-Garonne - Water Lilies at Le Temple sur Lot
One of these villages is Le Temple sur Lot. There is a 15th-century command unit of the Knights Templars which dominates the road as you drive through Le Temple but other than that there really doesn't seem much to stop for - until you take a closer look. Tucked away at the back of the village is the mecca of the water lily world.
Lot-et-Garonne - Etablissement Botanique Latour-Marliac
It all started in the latter half of the l9th-century with Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac who lived in the village and who was later to become its mayor. The son of a famous botanist, and a botanist himself, he became obsessed with the idea of the manual hybridisation of water lilies and travelled the world collecting many and varied species and when he returned to Le Temple he began to experiment. He started out with half wine casks filled with water and gradually began to build pools.
He continued until his death in 1911 and during this time he produced about 140 varieties of water lily, including Marliacea Chromatella, the beautiful yellow lily which was the first commercially viable water lily
Lot-et-Garonne - Water Lily Supplier to Claude Monet
The water gardens at Le Temple sur Lot were the only place where these varieties could be bought - very few other places could get enough stock together to sell - and his water lilies were supplied to water gardeners around the world, including many grand estates. The French Impressionist painter, Claude Monet,upon hearing about Marliac having so many different varieties of water lily, immediately got in touch and bought all the lilies that are now at his beautiful garden at Giverny .
It is fortunate for modern water gardeners that Marliac was so successful as the vast majority of the hybrid hardy water lilies sold commercially today are of Marliac origin - all produced at this small nursery tucked away in a tiny village.
Lot-et-Garonne - Museum
Part of Marliac's house has been turned into a museum and all his personal effects, his desk, chair, prints and photos, papers - including correspondence with Monet - are on display. But what is most important is that the restored water-lily growing beds have been preserved in the original dramatic geometric patterns, with interconnecting paths to enable the visitor to easily inspect the lilies.
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