Waking up once or twice during the night I can hear the rain falling on our little farm hotel and fears of a rainy day grows stronger as the morning approaches but by the time the sunrise reaches the French countryside the rain has stopped and only dark grey clouds covers the sky. With a lovely breakfast behind us we leave Auberge De Launay after a lovely 2 day stay with very friendly staff, fantastic food in the restaurant and excellent accommodation in general. Highly recommended for anyone who has plans to stay in the Loire Valley for a few days.
We have some 350 km’s of driving ahead of us today towards Brittany and the Atlantic coast. On our way there we have one last Chateau to visit, Villandry. For any fan of gardens this would be the place to visit and to show your respect to the garden gods.
The château itself is a fairly modest building measured in French Chateau Standards. Not a fairy tale looking thing with lots of towers and weird and wonderful ornaments but a large building with a mote around it. What stand out with Villandry are the gardens and park lands. With precision geometric designs, not a leaf pointing the wrong directions and with the word “weeds” (in French of course) banned since the late 16th century it poses a spectacular sight. Even for someone who’s biggest achievement in gardening is to spend 3 hours on the ride on mower every 3 months and take the chainsaw out of the shed every now to chop a tree or two which has grown out of control. Vegetable patches looking more like pieces of art and herb gardens with scents to die for. Lawns which are greener than green and so perfectly cut an ant’s foot print would show up like a big scar.
We spend a good two hours slowly walking around in total peace and serenity. The previously solid grey skies are starting to brighten up ever so slowly by showing patches of blue among the solid grey. Luckily for some of us these gardens are well protected against intruders who’s want’s a taste of all the green yummy stuff That leaves some of us happy and some of us hungry…
Another feature of the castle is its surrounding mote which is filled with large hungry carps. No doubt well trained over centuries to try and con unexpected tourists out of their lunches. We brought no carp food or human food with us this time so before we head off towards Brittany we have a light lunch in one of the local café’s. With no staff speaking a word of English the selected items of the menu is are surprises for all involved, except for the carps of course.
The road towards North West takes us through the very lush and green French country side. Passing tiny villages with one ultra-narrow street, one church and one bar. The majority of the agriculture seems to be crops rather than cattle. Being early summer most of them are only half grown but still makes the landscape very colourful with different shades of green.
The evening concludes with the usual 3 course meal at a local restaurant and walking back to the hotel just before 10pm the sun is still shining, birds are still singing and still no weeds in sight at Villandry…
Beautiful photos! Hugs!
ReplyDeleteMy mum says she can post a picture of our balcony garden later... ;-)
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