Solidarity with Mayotte: Supporting Reconstruction
A year and a half after Cyclone Chido struck on December 14, 2024, Fondation de France continues its efforts to support affected populations, whose needs
Along the former Western Front, the memory of World War I has long marked the landscape, a lasting reminder of loss and sacrifice. But today, where the fields of battle once fell silent, gardens now grow. Created in 2018, Art & Jardins | Hauts-de-France transforms former front lines into living places of reflection and renewal as Gardens of Peace, stretching over 1,000 kilometers across the Hauts-de-France, the Grand Est, and Belgium. In 2026, the Gardens of Peace earned the prestigious European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award
in recognition of the project’s powerful contribution within the category of Citizens’ Engagement & Awareness-raising.
A collaborative effort by landscape architects and designers from the nations implicated in the conflict, the gardens are not only spaces of remembrance, but a reflection of a collective effort toward a brighter future defined by shared peace and prosperity. Among them, Lands of Promises, the American Garden of Peace at the Ferme de Navarin in the Marne, speaks directly to the bonds between France and the United States. Designed through a transatlantic collaboration between American landscape architect David Simonson and French designer Coralie Taupin, it stands near the Navarin Ossuary where the armies of Champagne fought alongside U.S. forces, with an official inauguration in 2026-2027.
Today, the message of the Gardens of Peace continues to grow. By 2028, 40 gardens will make up a Path of Peace in Europe, with new projects emerging beyond the Western Front, ensuring that a message of peace rooted in beauty, memory, and hope belongs to the whole world.
Each Garden of Peace begins with an international call for projects, inviting landscape architects and designers from countries connected to a given remembrance site to submit proposals. A jury of landscape experts, institutional partners, and patrons selects the winning design; the association then accompanies the designers through every step, from creation to inauguration, mobilizing local craftspeople and ensuring ongoing maintenance. The gardens are perennial, with a sustainable approach designed to last long into the future.
On average, each garden takes six months to design and is created with a budget of around €75,000. Since 2018, 30 gardens have been created across three countries, bringing together 26 nationalities of landscape architects and more than 750 volunteers including veterans, researchers, students, and local associations. Thirteen of the gardens are located on UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and each is conceived as a permanent, climate-adaptive space using endemic plants, local materials, and low-water maintenance strategies.
Beyond the gardens themselves, Art & Jardins | Hauts-de-France develops education and mediation programs around peace awareness, with particular attention to younger generations, reaching close to 5,000 participants annually. To support this work, the association is creating new educational materials, in print and digital formats, as well as a forthcoming book dedicated to the Gardens of Peace. The association also employs more than 100 people per year in social and professional reintegration programs, with inclusion workshops helping to maintain the gardens while opening pathways to employment for those who need it most.
U.S. donors can make a tax-deductible gift in support of the Gardens of Peace initiative, helping to promote a more peaceful future and honoring the bonds of French-American friendship. Among the projects on the horizon is a second American Garden of Peace in the department of Aisne, France, joining the Path of Peace. Contributions help fund:
By supporting the Gardens of Peace, you help transform the memory of conflict into something lasting and hopeful, creating a living representation of the shared work of building a more peaceful world.
A year and a half after Cyclone Chido struck on December 14, 2024, Fondation de France continues its efforts to support affected populations, whose needs
There is something fitting about meeting Benjamin Alunni at Villa Albertine in New York City, where Friends of Fondation de France holds our office. It
On the hot evening of June 21st, the streets of Paris were filled with music. Each year on this day, the Fête de la Musique,