A taste of France in your own backyard: Travellers can’t get enough of these spectacular Parisian gardens just two hours drive from a major Aussie city
- Holiday-starved travellers are getting a taste of France two hours from Sydney
- Merribee Gardens in Numbaa, NSW, is a work of art spread over seven acres
- The ornate hedges and flower beds look more Parisian than country Australian
- Visit Shoalhaven Instagram page describes it as an ‘overseas trip close to home’
Holiday-starved travellers can get a taste of France two and a half hours drive from Sydney at ornate gardens that look more like Paris than country Australia.
Merribee Gardens in Numbaa, on the New South Wales South Coast, is a masterpiece spread across seven acres which has been painstakingly perfected over the past 20 years by Lucy and Richard Marshall.
The elaborate hedge rows and vibrant flower beds are reminiscent of a Parisian park, inspiring visitors with fragrant rose gardens, a lavender paddock filled with more than 1,000 lavender bushes, and 20 ‘garden rooms’.
A post on the Visit Shoalhaven Instagram page describes a day at the gardens as an ‘overseas trip close to home’, an experience that is certain to draw crowds while Australia’s international border remains closed.
Holiday-starved travellers can get a taste of France two and a half hours drive from Sydney at ornate gardens that look more like Paris than country Australia
Merribee Gardens (pictured) in Numbaa, on the New South Wales South Coast, is a masterpiece spread across seven acres
But travellers will have to wait until the NSW lockdown is lifted because the gardens are currently closed.
Drone footage filmed by Sydney blogger Clarmonta, which captures the spectacular scene from above, has drawn stunned responses since it was uploaded to the Visit NSW Instagram account on Wednesday.
Many were amazed that they had never heard of the gardens before, with one man writing: ‘This is fantastic, where is it?’
A second added: ‘Stunning, I want to go here!’
A post on the Visit Shoalhaven Instagram page describes a day at the gardens as an ‘overseas trip close to home’
Travellers were amazed that they had never heard of the gardens before, with one man writing: ‘This is fantastic, where is it?’
The gardens feature fragrant rose gardens, a lavender paddock filled with more than 1,000 lavender bushes, and 20 ‘garden rooms’
Others said they would visit the gardens as soon as stay-at-home orders are lifted across the state.
‘It’s looking wonderful – so hoping we can make a visit in November,’ one woman wrote.
Freedom for Sydneysiders remains a distant prospect, after Premier Gladys Berejiklian extended lockdown – initially imposed in June as a seven-day shutdown – until October as the Harbour City continues to record more than 1,000 cases a day.
But residents living in regional NSW could be released weeks earlier, with lockdown set to be lifted across those areas on September 10.