It was love at first sight. I was surfing the web, a bit bored wondering what topic to google. Since I felt bored, I thought I would go into the direction of flower gardens and see if I could get some pictures that would inspire me for my acre of land. I forget the term that I entered but there popped up all these pictures and I started to click on them one by one and something caught my eye.
I dived in for a deeper look and with the picture came a website address…..Chateau Villandry…….. hmm I thought to myself this seems interesting, gardens and chateau in the same sentence. I clicked on the website and whoa!!! there it was…..
Right out of the middle ages literally…..a Chateau. I so love history and the mixture of history, medieval royalty, knights and crusades and all together, you have all the stuff of a great movie.
Well Villandry was built by Jean le Breton, one of François I’s Finance Ministers. It was completed toward 1536 and was the last of the large chateaus built in the Loire Valley during the Renaissance.Le Breton had first been ambassador to Italy where he spent all his time studying the Italian Renaissance art of gardening. In order to build the present chateau, Le Breton had razed an old XIIth century castle, from which he had only kept the old tower that can be seen behind the main courtyard.
Oh my god, I found my inspiration. A beautiful Chateau from the middle ages and a beautiful garden reputed to be one of the most beautiful in France. It took my breath away.
** Mr Henri Carvallo, the present owner of Chateau Villandry, kindly gave me permission to use photos from the Chateau Villandry Website.
Thank you Mr Carvallo.
I had a chance to visit this year between the two lock down measures in France, and it’s a wonderful place – the gardens are extensive and beautiful, much of it is orientated around vegetables. I highly recommend it.