Benchmarking town halls

For me, it's not a holiday unless I've been in some sort of government building. On family vacations when I was a kid, my mom used to drag us into state capitol buildings, the parliament of Quebec, etc. which might sound like it's not that much fun, but usually there's some pretty impressive architecture and maybe a museum featuring state history. (Maybe I was just a weird kid, my brother hated it.) As an adult, I've continued the tradition. I think what government buildings are like tells you something about the way people view themselves, government and the concept of citizenship.

On holiday in France, we saw a few town halls, hotel de ville. The ones I saw were all lovely examples of municipal architecture and best of all, they had fantastic floral displays. These weren't annuals planted up in little soldier rows, but often glorious examples of exotic cottage garden style - like Gertrude Jekyll on speed. I may be wrong, but I've visited a heck of a lot of town halls in Britain and quite a few state and municipal buildings in the US, but I've never seen such amazing civic gardens in front of the town hall. (There are sometimes lovely municipal gardens elsewhere). I know it has a cost, but I wonder if welcoming gardens might help citizens engage more with the business of city and state?

Bayeux


Calais

I also went inside this one

Dinan

Although I'm not sure that this is the town hall, it's definitely a municipal building

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