Yves Rocher

Enter the gardens of Yves Rocher...

Visited the Yves Rocher gardens in La Gacilly this morning. There was no one there, yet, I was welcome to walk through the bamboo forest, stumble across stone sculptures and read about the different varieties of well, just about any plant you can think of really.

The garden contains more than 1,000 plants including 38 species of medicinal and aromatic plants, 92 species of cosmetic and perfume plants, 50 friuit plants 19 species of dye plants, 150 useful plants of the tropics and 250 species of desert plants.

Yves Rocher is a well known brand but its factory is a very unassuming building adjacent to a large roundabout. True, the fields surrounding La Gacilly are a magnificent sight in summertime a colourful array of red poppies, blue cornflowers, orange marigolds and huge yellow sunflowers. The gardens adjacent to the offices / factory of Yves Rocher take you on a sensual journey, through a bamboo wood, over a rickety bamboo bridge, past citrus trees, orange, lemon and grapefruit, then on to the herb garden, mint varieties.. twenty or thirty of them, and under a jasmine arch, the powerful scent lingers. Through out this walk there are information boards about each plant and how they are used by Yves Rocher.

During the Spring and Summer months the factory is open to the public with guided tours and a film about how the cosmetics are made.

The fields around La Gacilly in the Summer are truly vibrant..all colours and the scent of the flowers...wow!