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Information:
Lyon, France
"After a career as a corset maker, Charles Billy devoted his retirement to creating a mass of oriental and medieval-style buildings around his trim house at Lyon. Using golden sandstone reclaimed from ruined rural buildings, he employed traditional methods of construction, building arches and vaults on meticulously constructed wooden supports."
"He embellished his creation with reliefs, figurines, carvings and arcane imagery. Connected by winding paths, and surrounded by dense foliage and colourful flowers, his monumental creation is a masterpiece of domes, turrets, vaults and arches. Begun in 1975, it is a proud tribute to himself and his wife Pauline; he named it the "Garden of the Two of Us". The upper terraces are reached by 14 engraved steps that lead to an oriental temple with reliefs of elephants and dancers. Around his house he laid a complex mosaic terrace, where he could sit and admire the vistas that he had created. Billy claimed to have begun his complex in the Middle Ages, only to be overcome by sleep; awakening 500 years later, he set about completing it." 1
Charles Billy's widow Pauline wishes to make a donation of the site for further preservation. To help, please write to Mme. Billy, Chemin du Mazard, 69380 Lozanne, Civrieux d'Azergues, France. See "With The Garden Of The World".
Le Jardin de Nous Deux: Civrieux d' Azergues, in the Rhone, to 20 km in the North-West of Lyon, France.
Text and images are from "Fantasy Worlds" by Deidi Von Schaewen and John Maizels
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