Where Art Nouveau curved, this garden squares itself off. Marrast met a sloping field with straight lines: terraces down the hill, a canal along the axis, basins cut like tiles.
At a glance
The Parc Boussard is a rare survival: a private garden of the late 1920s built to the principles of the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, at Lardy in the Essonne, thirty-eight kilometres south-west of Paris. It was laid out from 1927 for Henri Boussard, a wine merchant of one of the town’s oldest families, by Joseph Marrast (1881–1971). It has been listed as a monument historique since 1997, carries the Ministry of Culture’s Jardin remarquable label, and was completely restored in 2022. It is now a public park, open free every day.
Key facts
- What it is: an Art Déco garden of 1927–1929, now a public park
- Designer: Joseph Marrast (1881–1971), who built the architectural garden at the Cours-la-Reine for the 1925 exhibition and became the first president of the Académie d’architecture in 1953
- Commissioned by: Henri Boussard, wine merchant at Lardy
- Protection: monument historique since 1997; Jardin remarquable; restored 2022
- Where: 43 rue de Verdun, 91510 Lardy, 500 metres from the Lardy RER station
- Open: free, every day, 8:00–20:00 in summer and to 18:00 from November to March
History
The Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs of 1925 changed what a French garden was allowed to look like. Marrast had built one of its set pieces, an architectural garden on the Cours-la-Reine, and two years later he was given a hillside at Lardy and a private client.
The result, built between 1927 and 1929, is a garden designed like a building: terraces stepping down the slope, a canal running along the central axis between paved walks, geometric basins, and a deliberate mixture of materials — brick, sandstone, exposed-aggregate concrete — set against mosaic and clipped box. Nothing meanders.
The garden passed to the town and is now public. It was listed in 1997 and restored in full in 2022.
What you see
The plan is read from the top terrace: the axis drops away in stages, the water held in straight channels rather than allowed to pool. Paving and planting share the same geometry, and the materials change from level to level, which is what keeps a garden of right angles from reading as a diagram.
It is small. That is part of the interest: the ideas of 1925 are usually met in pavilions and department stores, rarely in a garden of this size that has kept its drawing.
Practical information
- Open every day, free of charge: 8:00–20:00 in summer, to 18:00 from November to March.
- The town runs guided visits once a month from April to October.
- Five hundred metres from the Lardy station on the RER C.
Getting there
Lardy is on the RER C from Paris, in the Essonne, about thirty-eight kilometres south-west of the capital. The park is a few minutes on foot from the station, on the rue de Verdun.
Nearby
- The valley of the Juine, between Étampes and La Ferté-Alais.
- Étampes, thirteen kilometres south-west, with its royal collegiate churches.
- Paris, thirty-eight kilometres north-east.
Sources
- Ville de Lardy — the park’s history, opening hours and the calendar of guided visits (pages on the park and on the European Heritage Days, read 13 September 2026).
- French Wikipedia, Joseph Marrast — his dates, the architectural garden at the Cours-la-Reine for the 1925 exhibition, the presidency of the Académie d’architecture from 1953, and the Parc Boussard of 1927–1929 built for Henri Boussard.
- Wikidata (Q22980781) — coordinates, address and the 1927 date.
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →Events here — now on & upcoming
- Guided visit of the Parc Boussard, an Art Deco garden of 1927 — Lardy20 Sep 2026See the event →
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