Pick of the Day: Monty Don's French Gardens
BBC2, 9pm
In this new three-part series Monty Don potters around France in a powder-blue Citroën 2CV recounting the stories that lie behind the country’s most important historic gardens.
Along the way he visits the Loire Valley, the Château de Chenonceau and Palace of Versailles, inspecting elaborate walled gardens designed to please the mistress (and later wife) of a king, the magnificent displays of flowers and fountains that incited jealousy in another monarch and a modern chateau garden that nearly bankrupted its owner.
Don sees how throughout history the French have used gardens as a public expression of money, power and passion.