Villandry Things to Do

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First of all, to have a good view of the ornamental garden, I climbed the steps to the Belvedere. From here, the view is great!
There are four squares which make up the love garden. They are "tender love," "passionate love," "fickle love" and "tragic love."

Tender love is symbolised by hearts separated by small flames. In the centre is masks worn to the Balls.

Passionate love is hearts broken by passion

Fickle love has four fans in the corners to symbolise the volatile nature of feelings. Between the corners, are horns of jilted love.

Tragic love is represented by blades of daggers and swords used in duels caused by rivalry in love. The flowers are red, to represent blood.

There is a Maltese cross, Languedoc cross and Basque cross.

The red flowering plants had only recently been planted [May] so were not showing up like in some photo's I have seen, where the garden is brilliant Red & Green.

Luckily, everybody is given a pamphlet with these descriptions, and a layout of the garden, otherwise I would have never guessed what I was looking at.

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Heading into a bedroom, I wondered, who was Joachim Carvallo?
He was the owner of Villandry Chateau. His bedroom was opened to the public in 2006, the 100th anniversary of his ownership of the Chateau.
I think he must have been short, as the bed in the photo was not very long.
Joachim renovated and designed the garden of Villandry and what a wonderful job he did! Just have a look at the view he had from his window, I would love to wake up to a view like that!
He also liked art, architecture and was quite religious.
In his room are religious paintings, the one in the photo is "the coronation of a virgin"

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I really liked how the vegetable garden was laid out. Looking down on it from the Castle Keep gave a wonderfu view of this garden.
The vegetable garden is a Renaissance kitchen garden, made up with nine squares of equal size, but with different geometric patterns in each.
The squares are planted with lots of different vegetables, and in alternating colours to give that special effect.
Garden's like this, date back to the Middle Ages, when the Monk's in the Abbey's liked to lay their vegetable gardens out in geometric shapes, with reference to the cross. The standard Roses that are planted nearby, symbolize the Monks digging their squares.
The next influence is from Italy, and this is when the Fountains, Arbours and Square flower beds were added.
Each year, two plantings take place, one in Spring and one in Summer. About 40 species of plants are used in each planting.

It is called a decorative kitchen garden, and it really is, it is a sight for the eyes!

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This garden was a surprise. No trimmed hedges here, but a garden of flower's blending together. It is made up of three different areas.

There is the "cloud room" where there are flowers of Blue and White, "The Sun room," which as the name suggests, I found the "hot" colours of orange and yellow.
The last room is the "children's room' which is the playground.

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Walking further on than the Ornamental garden, I came across the water garden. The pond is in the form of a Louis XV mirror, and is surrounded by trimmed Lime trees. Added to the pond, were a couple of lovely White Swans. Another nice area!

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A MUST DO is to climb the spiral staircase to the top of the Keep to admire the fantastic gardens.
The views are over the garden's and of the valley where the Cher and Loire Rivers flow. This landscape is a UNESCO world heritage site.
The garden layout would have to be the best I saw in France.

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Joachim & his wife were both collector's of old paintings, especially Spanish art in the 17th century.
They actually bought Villandry, so they could exhibit their Art collection. It was a quite famous collectiion before the war, but since has been broken up because of inheritance.
There still is a huge collection of paintings to be seen, either in the gallery or in the rooms of the Chateau.

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Another two rooms I have photo's of, are the Kitchen & Moat bedroom.

The kitchen has terra-cotta floor tiles, a huge fireplace, an old oak table, copper pots and pans of the era and a roasting spit.

The Moat bedroom, also designed in the 18th century, was used by Joachim Carvallo's wife. The painting's on the walls, are of three of his six children. They were painted by a friend.