Villandry

The village of Villandry (pop. 920) is noted not so much for its 16th C château (which contains a museum with a collection of pictures) as for the beautiful Renaissance gardens. The French-style gardens as we see them today were first laid out in the 16th C.; in the 19th C. they were altered to the English style then fashionable; and in our own century they have been restored by a style-conscious owner to their original form.

From the upper floor of the Château a flight of steps leads down to the higher part of the gardens, which cover an area of some 5 hectares/12,5 acres. To the left are the ornamental gardens, with the Garden of Love in the foreground, beyond which, on a lower level, are the vegetable gardens, also laid out in ornamental form. The state apartments of the château contain 18th C. furniture and tapestries, together with pictures by Italian and Spanish painters of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Particularly fine is the Hispano-Mauresque wooden ceiling, originally from a 13th C. mosque, which was bought by the owner of the château at an auction and then fitted together again in its new position - a task which took more than 15 years.