Mirabel Osler, author of A Gentle Plea for Chaos, has written an enchanting account of her travels through the French countryside to find some of the loveliest gardens of France. Curious about the reputed emphasis on order and symmetry - of the sort we see at Versailles and in the well-mannered formal kitchen garden - and, accompanied by her daughter and granddaughter, she set out to discover the hidden gardens of France.
Far from the parterres and broderie of French public parks are the gardens the French make for themselves, in astonishing variety and with the Gallic passion for individuality. Mrs. Osler has said that ''. . . gardens are the one area available to each of us in which to create our own personal visions of paradise . . .'' Without this unusual look at private, extraordinary gardens throughout France, these visions of paradise could not be enjoyed by any but their owners.
The Secret Gardens of France leads us into an exuberant garden for the five senses, planted with cherished specimens from five continents. Here are an unharnessed ''wild'' garden, a romantic island garden, a rose garden boasting more than 300 varieties, and a small, exquisite fragrance garden created by a gardener with a brilliant ''nose.''
The gardeners we meet on this countrywide journey are spirited, philosophic, irrepressible, stubborn, optimistic, conservative, boisterous . . . in short, like gardeners everywhere, they defy generalization. To the author's delight, many of them are bubbling with a joyous sensibility quite different from the horticultural solemnity so often encountered today. From the 84-year-old marquise, who lovingly tends her vegetable garden on the shore of Lake Geneva, to the pair of septuagenarian brothers, who've replaced gorse and bramble with rare and exotic plants at their island fort, these gardeners - and their gardens - have irresistible stories to tell.