This French Riviera inspired garden is elegant and dramatic as you are swept down the driveway to the entry court. Our client asked us to recreate the setting for the Hitchcock film ‘To Catch a Thief’ set in the French Riviera where tall cypress hedges offer glimpses of the sea from the cliffs along a winding road. The existing house, a version of Le Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette’s folly at Versailles outside Paris, France sits 36' below the grade of the road. The house sat at the bottom of a steep hill.

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We used tall tightly clipped arborvitae panels with contrasting greens. Gray cedars flank each of the corners of the quatrefoil pool. Upright European Hornbeams line the entrance to the parking court.

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As you wind down the stone driveway, there are glimpses of the Mediterranean blue quatrefoil pool. A tapis vert of green lawn off the limestone house is elegant and compliments a spectacular terrace of cream and pink travertine marble which wraps the rear and side of the house. Entering the parking court, a stone fountain built into the hillside dominates the space with hedges carved into the tall stone wall.