Villandry, France (part deux)
I put up some of our photos from our visit to the chateau and gardens at Villandry on Wednesday: Villandry, France. I saved the photos related to our lunch and the huge potager for Weekend Cooking today.
Our lunch was at the cafe near the front gate of the chateau. We all fell in love with the place mats, even before we saw the garden that inspired them. Some of our group purchased place mats and napkins at the gift store to take home.
Here are the “love gardens” that inspired the place mats. We didn’t see them at their best because the interior plantings that provide the color were missing. The lettuces that provided spring color had just been removed but the annual flowers for summer color weren’t yet put in.
Villandry has an enormous potager (kitchen garden). Our best view was from the roof of the 12th century tower that is all that remains of the original fortress.
Food from the potager is eaten, but I got the impression that the priority goes to display. My fantasy was that when the beds are switched from spring to summer plantings, every man, woman, and child in the village eats salad for a week to use up all the lettuce that is providing much of the color in these photos.
More photos from Villandry and the other gardens we visited in France are on my Flickr page: Joy’s Photostream.
I’m linking this post to Saturday Snapshot at West Metro Mommy Reads: Saturday Snapshot – July 13. She has pretty flower photos today and links to many more snapshots on blogs around the web.
Weekend Cooking is hosted each week at Beth Fish Reads. Today’s post, Weekend Cooking: Relish by Daphe Oz, features a book she describes as “more than a cookbook; it’s also a guide to putting yourself on the path to your dream life.” Check out the link list at the bottom of the post for more cooking, eating, gardening, and other food adventures.
oh, I would love to visit those gardens!!
Oh, wow, that is amazing! Beautiful!! I can’t even imagine how many man hours a week it takes to maintain that.
Had to share this with my husband….”Could we do this in our backyard?” I asked him. LOL
Amazing Gardens. If this is when they are not at their best, then I cannot imagine them much better. They make me think of patchwork quilts.
Amazing amount of energy and thought goes into these wonderful potagers.
A work of Art.
That is the most incredible garden. It would make a lovely embroidery! My snapshot is at http://goo.gl/LUiDP
Amazing gardens. I’m glad you posted the placemats first as a little hint. Here’s Mine
I loved Villandry too – your pic from the top is amazing – much better than any I managed to get. We didn’t eat at the cafe but did have an icecream from the little stall. Cheers
Simply amazing and so elegant!
Joy, these are so great – what a beautiful hedge design.
Stunning photos, even without the colour planting. I like your vision for using the produce between plantings
Your photos are stunning- thanks for sharing them.
Beautiful!!
THANKS for sharing.
Elizabeth
Silver’s Reviews
My Saturday Snapshot
I just came over from The Book Trunk. I saw the Villandry gardens from the air a couple of days ago and am so pleased to see them close-up in your post. It must have been so much fun to see them in person. I saw them from a helicopter which usually goes over the Tour de France that I watch, daily, live on TV – wished I was there instead, but it is still a lot of fun to see all the French landscape everyday for 3 weeks during the Tour.
So amazing! I can’t keep up with a few small flower beds! Thanks for sharing the beautiful photos.
Stunning! Wow! I too hope the village eats salad for weeks.
I just scrolled through your flickr gallery… such beautiful photos, Joy! I would have loved visiting all those gardens!
The gardens are simply amazing! Can you imagine the pruning and upkeep involved?
I just returned from almost a month of travel (and almost no internet access) – catching up with everyone.
We need to set new challenges now that we are done traveling and warm weather has arrived. Now to brainstorm!
The sheer scale of these gardens is awesome! I love the modular units.
Margaret — Some of these would work as mosaics!
That garden is wonderful and the pictures are amazing! Some of them look like illustrations because the colors are so soft. I had to look close to see that they were photographs.
Thanks for sharing!
Rose City Reader
What an absolutely gorgeous potager, it is quite rightly famous. I love all the different green tonings. I haven’t had the opportunity to visit Villandry yet, but must get there one trip.
I can’t even imagine the discipline to create these gardens! They are amazing!
wow! Amazing gardens! great pictures!