Question
Specifically are there any periodicals you can point me to or websites?
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hello Long Island - I am writing to you from Texas, and I honeslty have no idea what the "Zone" is for this area, but I am an interior designer with a client who has requested what she is calling a "French Country" look of the garden.  It would be viewed from the living room and accessible through a wall of sliding French doors.  Would you know of any good websites and/or reference books to guide this project?  I normally handle the interior, but as it is a visual element even from within the home, I am anxious to guide the landscaping decisions as part of this work.  Any response is appreciated.
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French Garden Design is an interesting field - excuse the pun!

Unlike the English Garden, the French Garden is formal and inclined toward balance and symmetry.

Boxwood, Lavender, Iris and Rosemary are found in the borders.  Hedges are pruned low.  Rose Standards share patio space with Standard-trained Citrus Trees and Topiaries.  Paths are paved with gravel or with limestone slabs.

But one picture, worth a thousand words...

See stunning photographs on the internet at Jardin de Campagne (Garden of the Countryside, Grisy Plasters, France) (http://www.jardindecampagne.com/jardin.html).  Roses include Buff Beauty, Veilchenblau, Raubritter.  There are Chinese and Japanese Peonies (Paeonia 'mlokosewitschii' and Pivoine du Jardin de Campagne); Irises; and Summer-blooming Phlox.  Note the use of sculpture and ornamentation.  Think Giverny.  Les Jardins d'Albertas (http://www.jardinsalbertas.com/) in Aix en Provence has more stunning photos to lure tourists.  And one Belgian gardener has created her own impressive website (http://users.skynet.be/flowergarden/startgardeneng.htm) with extensive photos, although these lean toward a style that is more relaxed and personal than the grand extravagant haute-jardin of French provinces.

This is an area that is often neglected among gardeners.  Most people flock to the English cottage garden.  But the French have a strong gardening tradition, right down to their expensive perfume bases and .  This is a fresh, new approach.  Please keep me posted.  Send pictures.

Answer
Sorry for the very long wait here.  I recommend highly the book "Gardens in Provence" by Louisa Jones, with its excellent visuals and text.

"Madame Lafourcade, working with a large, flat, windswpet space, designed a formal layout where shaded enclosures and long pergolas alternate with open vistas; where water clearly links the different parts; where strong design does not exclude complex texture, but foliage shape and color clearly dominate floral elements.  She has carefully avoided too much pretension by choosing only local polants for the large blocks, those commonly found around the farmsteads, in chateau gardens and the garrigue: box, laurels and laurustinus, olive trees...Two rectangles of lavender extend the symmetry... "

Contrast this with "English Cottage Gardening for American Gardeners" by Margaret Hensel.  The photographs in this book are distinctly English.  Less formal.  There is stone and wood in the English garden; clay, terracotta, stucco in the French garden.

Jones compares them herself: "In Carpentras, a gardener has imitated English models so successfully that a group of British visitors exclaimed, ' But this could be in England!' to the great delighte of their hostess.  But her trellis with vine and wisteria and her old stone well remain unmistakably Provencal."

Jones notes: "Some conceptions of English gardening will always be domed to failure in Provence... In a harsh Mediterranean climate... a 'riotous array of blooms' could never seem 'natural', or wild; ... garden formalities do not mean making natural exuberance submit to 'elegant fancies'... (because) farmers know that pruning not only spurs plants to produce more fruits or flowers but also that many suffer and die wtihout this care."  Like their tastes in Fashion, the fastidious French design their gardens rationally, without impulse.  An English cottage garden will always be upper class leisure, without fear of dirty hands, an intimate and unabashedly personal expression.  One is Monet's Giverny, YSL, Chateau d'Yquem; the other is Gertrude Jekyll, Sissinghurst; the dowdy hats of the RHS.  So close yet so far.

You can buy these books discounted at Amazon.com.

Good luck with your gardens.