A keen botanist all his life, it was a visit to the park at Anduze that led to Joan Brisson discovering the magical universe of the bamboo.
Story of a passion
This led him to express his fascination for the plant by creating a plantation of his first bamboos in what was then a poplar grove in the middle of the family vineyard at Matha in 1999. Since then, his involvement in the European Bamboo Association has led to his bringing more and more exotic varieties to enrich his garden.
Today, La Bambouseraie is home to more than 60 varieties of Asian bamboos in evolutionary shapes and colours next to 30 or so tropical plants on a hectare of land.
An overview of your visit …
Bamboos that are invasive, non-invasive, sage, original, giant, bambousoids, Dulcis (visitors in June can taste raw the young growths that smack of petit pois) … Brought into an atmosphere of freshness and serenity, the visitor is struck by these sometimes vertiginous rows of environmental lushness.
Depending on the path, you will always find one plant that is in flower between June and September, a true enchantment for the senses. The medicinal plants, some prehistoric, aphrodisiac, carnivore or sensate are displayed with originality, humour and remarkable erudition.
Feel free to touch and smell the spices, herbaceous and aromatic plants, to bring to your lips surprising varieties: the bays of the pheasant-berry tree that taste of caramel, the lemon caviar’s flesh of slightly acid little pills that explode in your mouth, the refreshing nashi fruit shaped like an apple but tasting like a pear …
This captivating site, where crowned cranes, Himalayan pheasants and Asian cockerels cavort will transport you to the farthest reaches of the globe in an extraordinary ambiance.
How to get there and how to book:
La Bambouseraie
16 rue du Moulin 17160 Matha
05 46 58 25 07