Jardin Massey
Right in the centre of Tarbes, Jardin Massey is a 10-hectare English-style park that hides one of the most unexpected architectural surprises in the southwest: a 15th-century cloister salvaged from a Franciscan monastery and reassembled in the middle of the garden, its pink marble columns reflected in a still ornamental pond.
The Cloister and Its History
The cloître de la Réunion was dismantled stone by stone from the Franciscan convent of Tarbes in the 19th century and rebuilt inside the park by Placide Massey, the garden's founder and a former director of Versailles, who had a collector's passion for salvaging medieval stonework.
Walking its arcaded gallery in the early morning, when the light falls at a low angle through the carved capitals and the swifts are still circling the tower above, is one of those quietly transcendent travel experiences that costs nothing and leaves a lasting impression.
The Garden Itself
Beyond the cloister, the park contains a remarkable collection of century-old trees — cedars of Lebanon, a magnificent tulip tree, a giant sequoia — as well as a rose garden, a bandstand and a small aviary that children adore.
The Musée Massey, housed in a Moorish-influenced 19th-century villa at the park's centre, holds a fine collection of Flemish and Dutch paintings alongside Pyrenean folk objects and a room dedicated to the history of the Hussars, the flamboyant cavalry regiment that made Tarbes its spiritual home.
When to Visit
The garden is at its most beautiful in late May when the roses are in full bloom and the chestnut allées are in leaf; it is also the venue for the city's summer festival season, with open-air concerts held on the bandstand on warm evenings.
Locals use Jardin Massey as a daily park — you will find grandmothers reading on benches, children chasing pigeons and teenagers doing homework under the cedars, which gives it a warmth and authenticity that a more touristic attraction could never manufacture.
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