Lainé worked at Waddesdon for at least eleven years, laying out roads, terraces and plantations of mature trees, and helping turn the site from a wild, muddy hill into one of the finest gardens in England.
[2] At Vaux-le-Vicomte in Seine-et-Marne, Lainé was employed by the new owner of the chateau, Alfred Sommier, from about 1876 to restore the classical gardens originally designed by Andre Le Nôtre in the mid-17th century.
He laid miles of pipes so that 20 of the grand water features could work again, and raised the level of the entire garden by some 20 cm so he could add fresh topsoil.
[3] By 1891, the French press was hailing the gardens (with their pools, canals, cascade, fountains, terraces, statues and magnificent hornbeam hedges) as being fully restored to their original state.
[4] Lainé worked for other private clients in France: from 1881 he laid out the grounds of the Château d'Armainvilliers in Seine-et-Marne for Edmond de Rothschild, creating a park that the family remembered as "particularly awe-inspiring and a great luxury"[5] and he designed the garden and grounds for Baron Eugene Roger at La Triboulette in Vouzeron, Cher (1887).