“I was faced”: in the Oise, a painter opens to visitors his secret garden at the 12,000 tulips

“When life gives you lemons, make it a lemonade”said an Anglo-Saxon proverb. André Van Beek may have been born in Picardy, he made this precept his by transforming a vague terrain of Saint-Paul (Oise) in work of art. In fact in an extraordinary garden which he himself drew, from the 1990s, then designed. “I created these basins with the east-west orientation, for all my light reflections in the morning, in the evening. This is what is interesting in the colors”says the garden painter at the microphone of TF1, in the report of the 13h news visible at the top of this article. Today, visitors flock to its paradise of water, greenery and flowers, inevitably recalling, due to a proximity both geographic and aesthetic, the garden of Giverny which has so much inspired Claude Monet.

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With the difference that this mythical garden has long remained closed to the public, at least throughout the life of one of the founders of impressionism. This gives curious people who came to survey that of André Van Beek, with an area of ​​1.5 hectare, the feeling of being privileged, because they can see the artist create before their eyes, while contemplating the bridges, the ponds, the water lilies … “We know Giverny, we really liked it, but here it is also beautiful! I had never come and there, really, when I entered, I was faced”enthuses a visitor.

André Van Beek, French painter of Dutch origin aged 78, opens his secret garden for twenty-five years, but only from April to October. Time for him to take advantage of attendance to sell his paintings. This year, it is the tulip which is in majesty: 12,000 of these emblematic flowers illuminate the garden, shivering with the warm air of spring. A couple from the Netherlands is in a spam in front of so much beauty: “Beautiful! I have seen tulips that I had never seen with us”points out the husband, in reference to Queens flamingos, literally the queens of the Flemish pink, an actually very rare variety. Not far from there, Marie-Thérèse, the wife of André, maintains the garden herself by watering it every day. Tirelessly. With a smile. She says: “It makes me happy to do something beautiful.”