Have you ever wandered through a life-size cubist painting? That’s the unique experience on offer at Parc Boussard in Lardy, in the heart of Essonne, for Heritage Days on September 19 and 20, 2026. This major Île-de-France event invites curious visitors and enthusiasts each year to step behind the doors of unusual, often little-known places to celebrate the region’s rich history and architecture. Here, there’s no Gothic cathedral or medieval keep, but a lush haven where geometry takes center stage.
Parc Boussard: we visited this Art Deco garden, a designated Jardin Remarquable and free to visit in Essonne.
The Boussard Park, in Lardy (Essonne), is one of the few Art Deco gardens in Île-de-France. Registered as a historic monument and named a Remarkable Garden, this free-entry municipal park is open year-round. Tucked away in a discreet, hidden corner, it’s a real gem we were pleased to discover and are thrilled to share with you. [Read more]
The story of this estate takes shape in the 1920s. Wine merchant Henri Boussard entrusts the layout of his land to architect Joseph Marrast, a rising talent of the era. Marrast conceives an innovative space, unveiled at Paris’s renowned International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in 1925. Classified as a Historic Monument, the Boussard park stands as one of the few well-preserved testimonies of gardens designed in the spirit of Art Deco.
Unlike the asymmetrical, plant-like curves of the Art Nouveau movement that precedes it, the Art Deco style favors precision, straight lines, zigzag motifs, octagons, and orderly symmetry. In the park, this visual vocabulary is expressed as:
- A clever arrangement of levels and terraces
- A central canal flanked by evenly paved walkways
- The pioneering use of bricks and sandstone slabs, paired with exposed-aggregate concrete
- Geometric basins, where the water's mirror extends the mineral architecture
After decades of neglect and alteration, the municipality has mounted a sweeping restoration campaign to restore to every grove and every low wall its original sharpness. Ready to pierce the mysteries of this leafy jewel from the Roaring Twenties? Find out now the activities and guided tours planned for this exceptional weekend.
Guided tour – Parc Boussard, an Art Deco garden in Île-de-France
Come discover the garden on the occasion of European Heritage Days and the centennial of Art Deco, guided by a guide who specializes in the history of gardens.
Conditions of participation: Free | No reservation required
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Guided tour of Boussard Park
A Deco garden in the heart of a village. It’s a charming, unusual touch in Île-de-France. The garden evokes the Mediterranean architecture that inspired 1930s artists. It’s the celebrated Art Deco era when science was transforming society. In 1927, Henri Boussard, a wine merchant and patron of many artists and writers, commissioned a renowned architect, Joseph Marrast, following his notable showing at the Paris Arts Décoratifs Exposition. Thus the garden owes nothing to classicism or to English landscape parks. On either side of a waterway, the dialogue runs between the novelty of concrete and the tradition of mosaics, the red of bricks and the green of boxwood, the clean lines and the natural undergrowth beneath the trees. Parc Boussard is listed on the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments.
Participation conditions: Free | No booking required
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 11:00 ⤏ 12:00
This page may contain AI-assisted elements, more information here.
Dates and Opening Time
From September 19, 2026 to September 20, 2026
Location
Boussard Park
43 Rue de Verdun
91510 Lardy
Route planner
Parc Boussard: we visited this Art Deco garden, a designated Jardin Remarquable and free to visit in Essonne.
