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French picturesque gardens constructed during the last decades of the 18th century were a major vehicle to express the owners' artistic taste and world views, and offer a vantage point to observe the social, political and philosophical ideas of French Enlightenment. Current discussions on French picturesque gardens focus on their respect for nature and pursuit of "all times and places", yet not enough research has been conducted to examine the special representation of other in those gardens. This paper discusses the representation of other in both historical and geographical dimensions in a representative French picturesque garden Desert de Retz, and through architectural and hermeneutic reading of the garden, discussion on French art and aesthetic taste of the time, and examination of major works by representative philosophes, this paper exposes the different representation of the historical other and the geographical other in Enlightenment France, and argues that contrary to the fluid and dynamic image created for past stages in Western history, the image constructed for the Orient is completely divorced from its own context and history to become essentialist and static. The historical other is in fact still safely incorporated into the Enlightenment vision of a progressive development; only the Orient was the real other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization can promote the replacement of native species by exotic species resulting in an increase in community's similarity over time. This process is called biotic homogenization, which is usually studied at large scale from species lists. Our paper addresses the effects of urbanization on plant community at local scale in areas where urban policies are implemented. We focus on private gardens as they are the most common components of green spaces in European urbanized areas. They are also a place where exotic species are introduced. Observations were made on spontaneous flora sampled from gardens in two study sites of the French Mediterranean: a large city and a village located in an urbanizing rural area. We evaluated how urban landscape influences floristic similarity and how exotic species affect homogenization. We divided each study site in three built-up density zones. As the urbanization process of both sites did not take place at the same time, we were able to assess the effect of time on floristic similarity. Results indicate that floristic similarity is less important in high dense built-up areas than in low dense ones. Exotic species tend to reduce floristic similarity in city centers and increase floristic similarity in low dense built-up areas in both sites. Landscape metrics calculated in built-up areas surrounding the gardens influence floristic similarity. Lastly, we found that urban planning in terms of built-up density affects biodiversity distribution and that private gardens can provide landscape connectivity within urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This book is written by Érik Orsenna, a member of the French Academy. The "portrait of a happy man" shows how André Le Nôtre (1613-1700) became the father of the French gardens. The paper presents some details on the first French gardens he conceived: the ones from the castle of Vaux le Vicomte, as well as his relation with Nicolas Fouquet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]