Overlooking the River Cher, Villandry was the last of the great Chateaux built in the Loire Valley during the Renaissance period.

Jean Le Breton started building in 1532 on a site that had previously been an old Roman and later Gallic fortress.

This new grand castle was built to impress and had two extensive garden terraces alongside - one for vegetables and the other was purely ornamental.

In the 1760 it was sold to the Marquis de Castellane who renovated the Chateau and extended the grounds dramatically creating a very fine classic French garden. It featured multiple terraces, orangeries, neoclassical out buildings, more formal parterre gardens and a new pond in the shape of a Louis XV looking glass.

But all was destroyed by the next owner, the Hainguerlot family who succumbed to fashion as the 'English Romantic Landscape' movement became all the rage throughout Europe.   Formal gardens were demolished and ploughed up to be replaced by rolling lawns, curving paths and mass plantings of trees and shrubs.

Rescue:

But it was the unlikely combination of Joachim Carvallo (a Spanish doctor) and his wealthy American wife who became intoxicated by the latent beauty of Villandry and set about, what turned out to be, a life long quest to restore both castle and grounds to their glory days of the 18th century.

Relying upon archived blueprints he started a large scale archaeological dig and in the process discovered much of the foundations and previous infrastructure of pathways and terraces of the original splendid grounds and gardens.  It was his subsequent restorative work that created the distinct garden precincts we see today.

Vegetable Gardens: A combination of middle age monastic design and Italian influences created a vast nine squared vegetable garden, all meticulously divided with neat box hedges and vegetables planted together for colour and texture.

Ornamental Parterre Gardens: These are overlooked from the Chateau windows and consist of six 'rooms' in intricate geometric shapes all defined by razor sharp trimmed box hedges encompassing brilliant flower colour plantings.

The Water Garden: This is essentially one large pond or small lake surrounded by four other circular fountain ponds, sloping grassy banks and scattered topiary spheres. It also doubles as a reservoir for watering the hundreds of thousands of plants.

The Second Salon Ornamental Gardens: These were added later by Joachim Carvallo on a raised terrace alongside an ornamental water channel. Here intricate box parterres evoke the Andalusian style of gardens of his homelands with music being the main motif.

The Herb Garden: This relatively narrow garden precinct occupies the furthest edge of the gardens alongside the churchyard and is devoted to aromatic, culinary and medicinal herb cultivation in amongst floral and topiary elements.

The Maze: All grand houses and castles had to have a maze or labrynth and Villandry is no exception. Here stout Hornbeams are crisply clipped in the Renaissance style that leads to an elevated platform in the centre.

The Sun Garden: This is the most modern addition to the gardens on the highest terrace and consists of three chambers #1. The Children's Chamber #2. The Sun Chamber and #3. The Cloud Chamber - all of which feature shrubs and colourful summer border flowers and perennials.

The Woodland Walk:  A particular favourite of this writer, the three hectares of woodlands provide an elevated area to enjoy views over the entire grounds and gardens - and for such geometric gardens, this is without doubt the best way to gain the 'big picture' of Villandry. It also provides the ultimate contrast as you gaze down through the untamed and irregular trees to the crisp precision and order of the various garden precincts.

In 2009 the head gardener set out on a path for the gardens to become 100% organic and developed an integrated management system to control pests thereby banishing pesticides completely. Fertilisation is also chemical free and weeding is all by removal rather than sprays.

Villandry is without doubt one of the very finest French Renaissance gardens, quietly watched over by an impressively restored Chateau - which together account for the fact that it remains one of the most visited locations in the beautiful Loire Valley.