The botanical garden of Coutances is justly famous. The house at its entrance, just off the Cathedral square, is the local museum,
Musée Quesnel-Morinière, named after the family which gave the house and gardens to the town. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The gardens are on a steep hillside, like everything in Coutances. One enters at the to, into a formal French garden ending in a terrace
known as the mail, after a game that was played on such long, straight, broad paths. Below that is an English garden, and below that a
band of virgin woodland. The gardeners are very fond of bedding plats, and every year there is a new set of pièces montées; in these
pictures you will see an elephant, a lighthouse, a shipwreck and a World Cup mascot. Ridiculous, perhaps, but charming.