The Lost Orchard

'I began to dream about an orchard filled with thousands of fruit trees...

Beyond the large cast iron gates, which are always open, at the entrance to Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons four large espalier apricot trees adorn the fifteenth-century yellow Oxford-stone walls. I wanted to pass on a very powerful message to my guests: "You are about to enter a magical place of beauty where food, and the growing of it, are at the heart of everything."

Today we have an orchard with over 150 ancient varieties of fruit. Together they tell the story not only of what we have lost in Britain, and also in France, but what we could regain.