Jardin alpin La Jaÿsinia (La Jaÿsinia Alpine Garden)

Would you like a taste of the vegetation of the Caucasus? Or the sublime yet haunted landscapes of the Himalayas? At the Jaÿsinia, in the charming village of Samoëns, plants and flowers from cold and mountainous areas of the world offer themselves on display. The coquettes of this unique garden can be discovered by climbing the 80-metre slope of the estate and walking around its 3.7 hectares!

Follow the path that winds through the mountain... Different regions reveal their treasures in as many sectors: the Alps and the blue thistle, the Mediterranean and the cedar of Lebanon, the Balkans and the crocus. Still in the northern hemisphere, but further away from us, America is represented by an important guest, the giant sequoia, or the bloodroot, a white flower... but with a red sap! Direction: Asia, with China and the peony of Reverend Father Delavay, as well as Japan and the toad lily. The South, on the other hand, is rarer, with New Zealand and the shrubby speedwell.

As you may have guessed, there is a spring in this garden. Or, more precisely, a branch of it. Pipes dug - by hand... - in the mountain feed fountains and waterfalls, ponds and marshes. In winter, the falls can offer the fascinating spectacle of giant stalactites! But the site offers many other attractions: the chapel of La Jaÿsinia, an unobstructed view of the charming village of Samoëns and the Giffre valley, or, at the top, the ruins of the Tornalta castle, in a setting of vegetation. Sometimes extraordinary landscapes are born from the works of Man and Nature...

La Jaÿsinia has an unusual history. It was here that the little Septimontan Marie-Louise Jaÿ, born in 1838, kept her herd of goats until she was 15. Sent to her family in Paris, she met her husband Ernest Cognacq. Tireless and thrifty workers, together they founded the Samaritaine, a Parisian department store that was an immediate success! At the head of an immense fortune and without children, Marie-Louise and Ernest devoted the end of their lives to good works and never forgot the village of her birth. In 1906, she bought the land to create a botanical garden, designed by the landscape architect Jules Allemand. In 1936, the scientific leadership of La Jaÿsinia was entrusted to the Museum, which founded a research laboratory with a herbarium. A true work of landscape art, the site is today labelled a “remarkable garden” for its quality and beauty. Come and admire it!