"Villandry - Garden history" Villandry by iandsmith

An imaginative early twentieth century re-creation of a renaissance garden. The moated Chateau that we see today dates from c1536 and had a formal garden in the eighteenth century. The present garden dates from the years after 1906 when it was bought by a Spanish doctor, Dr Joachim Carvallo. Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, he wished the garden to have a sixteenth century character and designed most of the garden himself. Great horticultural skill was deployed, especially in the use of vegetables. An arbour of grape vines leads to a great parterre, conceived as a Garden of Music. On the other side of the canal is a Garden of Love. Symbolising the moods of love, it looks rectangular from the chateau but is actually trapezoid. The aesthetically designed vegetable garden is based on an illustration from Du Cerceau's Les plus excellents bastiments de France (1576). So,despite its origins, the Villandry garden is the work of a twentieth century imagination.
Its 12th century origins are still visible in the form of the square tower, or keep.

• Pros:One of the great gardens, very good chateau, plenty of parking
• In a nutshell:Definitely deserving of its reputation, if you're into gardens, go there