Glossary · A
Allée
Also called allées, allee, alley, contre-allée, counter-allée
A straight walk or ride in a formal garden, lined with clipped hedges or rows of trees. In the French garden its width is proportioned to its length; a walk under the trees beside it is a counter-allée (contre-allée).
See also: Palissade, Patte d’oie
Rules that use the word
The allée widens with its length. Proportion the width of an allée to its length: a walk of about 100 toises (some 200 m) should be 5 or 6 toises wide, one of 200 toises 7 or 8, and so on, so that a long walk does not seem to narrow to a slot in the distance.
Parterres by the house, woods beyond. Lay the parterres next to the house, low and flat so that nothing blocks the view from its windows; set bosquets and groves beyond them, and lead long allées out toward the horizon, so that the garden always seems larger than it is.
The pleasure house in its garden. Give a pleasure house a single principal storey of rooms in enfilade round a central salon that projects into the garden, open on to the parterres through tall windows, and set it where its axis continues into the garden’s allées.
Where it appears in the book
In the chapters Gardens and Landscape.
A feature of French formal garden architecture.
Nearby in the glossary
Aisle · Alae · Alfarda · Alfiz · Alternating supports · Amalaka · Ambulatory · Anathyrosis