Alice in Wonderland? Or Château de Villandry?
January 3, 2022When we looked at pictures of this château online, we were in awe of the gardens. My oldest daughter was reading Alice in Wonderland at the the time and said she could envision the Queen’s gardens looking just like this.
The Château de Villandry is the last castle erected during the Renaissance in the Loire Valley. During the Renaissance, François Ier wanted to compete with Italy in terms of cultural policy, so he commissioned the building of numerous castles. While the land originally housed a fortress, in 1532 Jean Le Breton had everything destroyed but the keep. It took him 4 years to bring the castle to fruition. The château remained within the Le Breton family for nearly two centuries until it was passed onto Marquis de Castellane. It was confiscated in the French Revolution. In the 19th century, Emperor Napoleon gifted the château to his brother Jérôme Bonaparte. While the château itself is truly magnificent, it is the gardens that draw the greatest attention. The land help simple well maintained gardens, but the extravagance we see today didn’t come until 1906 when Joachim Carvallo purchased the castle with his wife Ann Coleman that the garden were added. He wanted a lavish, picturesque Renaissance garden.
Today, there are 6 gardens covering 9 hectares including a water garden, ornamental flower gardens, and vegetable gardens. The gardens are spread over three levels with terraces featuring the different types of gardens forming geometry shapes.
One of my wife’s favorite gardens it the “gardens of love”. There are four distinct areas in this garden with different symbolic meanings: “Tender Love” are heart shapes hedges separate by the flames of love; “Passionate Love” is demonstrated in broken hearts separated by a labyrinth of boxwoods beds; “Fickle Love” has four fans in angles; and “Tragic Love” in the shape of dagger blades and swords. Or course, if you visit, there is a lovely brochure that goes in to great detail about the symbolism behind the gardens.
My oldest daughter and wife actually skipped through the gardens singing “We’re painting the roses red, we’re painting the roses red”. It was quite peaceful walking the landscape. Tall trees and hedges separate the gardens so that you can really feel like you’re standing in a different world with each garden.
Don’t worry about walking the entire way, there are several benches to sit and rest. There are even a few woven pavilions to sit under, each with it own flower display.
This World Heritage Site is definitely worth a visit just to visit the gardens.
