Built in 1810, the Château de Bel Ombre continues, two centuries later, to dazzle its visitors… Dotted with magnificent fountains, its French-style gardens—which are reminiscent of a miniature Versailles—stretch as far as the eye can see. Watching over this gem are Bertrand d’Unienville—a local version of André Le Nôtre—passionate gardeners, and a beautiful philosophy.
“Our gardens are the beating heart of the estate,” begins Bertrand, a landscape gardener. While their design is French-inspired, they are also meant to embody the very essence of the great Mauritian gardens, where native plants harmoniously coexist with trees and species from all corners of the world. Seasonality reigns supreme here, and the challenge is considerable. “We strive to ensure the gardens are in bloom every day of the year, so visitors can enjoy perfect strolls at all times,” he says. To meet this challenge, about ten gardeners, trained in horticulture, cover the grounds, each tending to an area they have fully made their own and where they have developed horticultural methods specific to that section.
Bertrand’s approach is almost poetic, as it places continuity at the heart of his work: the landscape sequence—which is of paramount importance—opens up the view and stretches from the colonial building to the mountains, occasionally brushing past the golf course and the real estate developments springing up throughout the estate. More than just a beautiful panorama, it is also a breeding ground for life taking shape. “We also cultivate plants that promote biodiversity at all levels; the idea is to create uninterrupted biodiversity corridors all the way to the mountains,” he explains. As endemic vetiver grasses thrive, insects and birds abound—a beauty of life that the estate is committed to preserving at all costs, for example by protecting nests until the young birds’ first flight.
And like any self-respecting garden, the Domaine de Bel Ombre can also boast one of the most… eclectic vegetable gardens around! Heirloom and forgotten vegetables sit alongside less common varieties of our classics and culinary staples. Mango-flavored ginger, Angole greens, Syrian fava beans, white chayotes, yellow-fleshed cassava, white-fleshed sweet potatoes… “What interests us is building a bridge between Mauritian home cooking and avant-garde cuisine,” explains Bertrand. A lover of varieties that have become little-known today, his latest success is the cambar de riz—or winged yam, as connoisseurs call it—from which he has just harvested his first crop.
Once again, sustainability permeates every corner of this vegetable garden, where seasonal crops are grown in rotation. “We don’t use any chemical inputs, and the concept of ‘weeds’ doesn’t exist here: we observe them and eat them when they’re edible,” he says. Designed like a large laboratory, this marvelous vegetable garden supplies the chefs at the estate: there are no advance orders; the chefs must work with whatever they receive each week, almost blindly. And this yields excellent results, such as Chef Ram Appadoo’s delicious risotto with brèdes mouroum at Château de Bel Ombre…
