Celebrate Peace in these Hauts-de-France Gardens

Located below Notre-Dame-de-Lorette hill, this garden, inspired by orchards and pastures, has been baptized "Promenade en sous-bois, lumières et transparence," or “a walk in the undergrowth, lights and translucence." Stop here before or after visiting the memorial to take in the space’s soft, intimate atmosphere, perfect for reflection and remembrance.

The Garden of the Third Train, a Franco-German garden located in Compiègne, leads visitors from the car park to the Armistice clearing. Walkways cross the underbrush, poetically evoking the trenches of WWI.

We can almost hear the bagpipes playing in this garden, which pays tribute to the musicians who galvanized the troops on the front lines of the Scottish battalions. Inspired by the traditional instrument and the Scottish moors, "Piper’s Peace" is covered in blue thistle, symbolic of the country, and black oak trees, the raw material used for making bagpipes.

In Vimy, near the famous memorial to the Canadian soldiers who fell on French soil, "Drapeau" garden represents the white flag. Plenty of white flowers and Shadbush trees with light grey trunks symbolize Canada’s boreal forests and snowy landscapes.

This garden is an extension of a key Franco-British memorial in Thiepval, paying homage to the fallen soldiers of the Battle of the Somme. The initials of these 442,000 men are engraved on a 130-foot wooden bench in the undergrowth, a symbol of the ties between the past, present, and future.

This park, located in Le Quesnoy, is best visited at sunrise or sunset, the ideal time to experience "rangimarie", a Maori expression meaning peace. Rangimarie was the inspiration for New Zealand’s landscape artist, Xanthe White, who designed this calm, serene promenade. It’s located near the New Zealand memorial, which honors the soldiers who liberated the city on November 4, 1918.

In Craonne, on the Chemin des Dames, garden "592" pays tribute to the Italian soldiers who disappeared during combat, their battalions symbolized by stakes planted amongst the trees. This installation comes into color in the springtime, when flowers are in full bloom.