The 'jardin du batiment' evolves day by day. A detail, a drawing, seen in a book 40 years ago, resurge in William Christie's memory and become a realisation. An idea emerges from a visit to an Italian garden, or from reading a treatise on ancient gardens, and becomes real. Since his childhood, William Christie has accumulated details which contribute to this eclectic and personal garden. The 'jardin du batiment' has grown in tandem with his musical career. There are marked similarities and parallels between their respective evolutions. To give new life to the past, reveal a forgotten world, and redefine its importance to the world today, is the work of his entire artistic life. He has chosen musically and horticulturally to specialise in the 17th and the 18th centuries - the period called the Baroque. William Christie finds in the art of this period a significance, which is anchored deeply within him and which forms the basis of his philosophical outlook. In the baroque one finds a youthful energy and, if this art carries us towards the past, it is a living past which speaks as much to the present and to the future as it does to the past. William Christie does not try to reproduce this past but to reinvent it.

The visitors will notice that their time is punctuated by the ringing of bells, installed in a beautiful bell tower which overlooks the central courtyard. These five bells, dedicated to friends, add a charming sonorous background to a walk through the Jardin du Bâtiment.