This garden is one of Villandry's prettiest. It's the ornamental garden just outside the castle's southern façade, separated from the kitchen garden by a small canal. The garden's theme is "love" which is represented by four
parterres representing
l'amour tendre (tender love),
l'amour passionné (passionate love),
l'amour volage (fickle love), and
l'amour tragique (tragic love). Another adjacent
parterre includes representations of the crosses of Malte, Languedoc, and the Basque country.
The heart shapes are in the "tender love" garden. The Maltese cross is at the top of the photo.
We saw the ornamental garden from two vantage points. The first was from high up on the castle tower (above), the second from one of the terraces below the forest. I'll share a couple of different perspectives in the next posts.
By the way, I didn't know anything about this garden until I read the brochure we got during our visit. And I'm only just reading it now...
Villandry has also designated itself as a wildlife Refuge under the LPO (Ligue Pour Oiseaux) scheme. That forest is teeming with birds and rare birds like the Osprey are seen frequently in summer. Pauline
ReplyDeleteExtraordinary. I've never seen anything like it. My partner would say, poor tortured plants.
ReplyDeletetime and patience is required to create something this beautiful.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful garden but does anyone else see a lot of penises?
ReplyDeleteWalt
ReplyDeleteLast night I watched Secrets d'Histoires on Anne de Bretagne and it was mentioned that, during her stay at Blois with her second husband Louis XII, they had a garden like Villandry.
It is -11C , feels like -17C here btw.
That garden is amazing.
ReplyDeleteYour last line made me laugh; sounds like home.
Breathtaking. I don't remember that particular part of the garden.
ReplyDelete"...I'm only just reading it now." haaaa haaaaa :)
ReplyDeleteWhat I find amazing is that no matter what time of year one visits, it's always beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThe garden is amazing.
ReplyDeletepauline, amazing!
ReplyDeleteandrew, lol!
anne marie, I know. My garden looks nothing like this one!
bosguy, well, it IS the garden of love...
t.b., we saw that recently, too.
chris, I never read about a place until after I've been there. Bad habit.
betty, I'm sure it's relatively new in this space, but not sure exactly when it was done.
judy, see my comment to chris above. ;)
stuart, true.
michael, indeed.