Villandry GB

We are in the main courtyard of the château. You can notice some elements which can help you to find the style :

-         arched galleries

-         mullioned windows

-         decorated pilasters

-         sculpted dormer windows

so we are in front of a Renaissance chateau.

Now, let’s go up the stairs to the terraces and access a belvedere to have a complete view of the gardens.

On your left, you can see the woods which are on a hill. It’s a kind of wild park where I imagine the inhabitants of the castle and their friends hunted, like in Chambord.

On your right there are the gardens. They are settled on three levels.

Number 1 : high level with the water garden and the sun garden

Number 2 : middle level with the maze, the 2 rooms of the ornamental garden (separated by the canal) and the herbs garden

Number 3 : the vegetable garden

Ornamental garden :

The first room is called the love garden (5000 m²). it is composed of 4 squares of box tree, which present different aspects of love.

1 : Tender love. Hearts separated by small flames. In the middle, masks worn at balls. Si this is the seduction, the beginning of love…

2 : Passionate love. Broken hearts because passion can hurt. Idea of movement with a farandole, meaning dance. So passion is a changing state which can cause pain…

3 : Deceived love. Horns of betrayal in love. In the corners, fans to hide the looks betaween the secret lovers. In the middle, love letters sent between lovers. The color of flowers used here is yellow because it’s the color of betrayal (“jaune cocu”)…

4 : Tragic love. Because of betrayal and rivalry, it could happen some duels between men. We can see blades of swords. The colors of flowers is red which symbolised bloodshed.

On the left, 3 crosses : Maltese, Languedoc and Basque. Emblems of some regions of France. Some fleur de lys to represent the entire kingdom of France.

The canal divides the ornamental garden in 2 rooms. The second one (6500m²) symbolizes music. We can see 12 little squares with stylised lyres, music notes and chandeliers to light up the music scores.

An important part of the garden is dedicated to the kitchen garden. It is very special because it mixes utility and decoration. It mesures 12500 m² and it is composed of 9 squares divided by big alleys.

The decoration is made by little ornamental fountains and spaces covered by roses. The flower beds are marked off (delimited) by box tree. There is about 50 000 plants in this vegetable garden.

The inhabitants of the chateau eat the production and the rest is transformed into pot earth (compost). They don’t sell vegetables.

The localisation of the kitchen garden, near the chateau, permits thes owner to keep an eye on it. Because during Ranaissance, there were new vegetables coming from America and they had to supervise acclimatization.

The herbs garden is a traditionnal garden from the Middle Ages. There are aromatic, cooking and medicinal herbs.

The maze is composed with wooden bowers (charmille in French). Its inspiration comes from the Christian mazes (like in some cathedrals). There is no dead ends. The path through the maze is a symbol of the human path on Earth. The goal is the center of the maze, with a nice hut, as the Christian goal is Heaven.

And so, there are 2 other gardens : the water garden and the sun garden. They are here to show the 2 important elements needed to grow plants.

The water garden, on 12 500 m², has a huge pool. It’s a mirror shape. But it’s not only decorative. It permits irrigation, thanks to a network of pipes and canals. The water comes from an artesian well (question of pression). It means that there is a water table next to the garden and the different levels of canals permit the circulation of water.

To finish, Villandry has its own greenhouses where they produce 70% of their plants.