© Janet Davis
Vegetable
gardens rarely attract much comment.
What’s to say, after all, 
about regimental rows of
radishes, cabbages and tomatoes? But
then most vegetable gardens don’t look like they were painted, rather than planted, using broad brushes dipped in pots of
gray, green, crimson and chartreuse. In
other words, most vegetable gardens don’t look like Villandry.
Located
a few hours south of Paris and a short drive from Tours, Château Villandry was
the last of the great Renaissance châteaux to be built on the banks of the
Loire River. Erected in 1536 by Jean le
Breton, finance minister to François I, the château remained in le Breton’s
family until the 18th century. .
But
the ornate gardens that now bedazzle visitors don’t share the Renaissance
lineage of the château. Dating back
only to 1907- 1920, they are the work of the current owner’s grandfather,
Joachim Carvallo, a Spanish physician who bought the property in 1906. Bankrolled by his wife, American heiress Ann
Coleman, 
Carvallo proceeded to design a
series of intricate gardens, staging them in three tiers on the slope of a
small valley between the village and the château. He used the geometric principles of design perfected by André
LeNôtre, who created the royal gardens for Louis XIV at Versailles.
On
the highest level is the water garden, with its formal pool shaped like a Louix
XV mirror that collects and holds the water necessary to charge the moat, the
fountains, and the irrigation pipes.
Flanking the reception hall is the
Jardin d’Amour or Garden of
Love, an elaborate knot garden depicting in sculpted boxwood the various stages
of a Renaissance love affair: flirtatious fans, daggers, hearts, love letters
or billets-doux, broken hearts, and
so on. A second box garden displays
crosses and musical instruments, such as harps and lyres.
But
it is Villandry’s ornamental kitchen garden, or potager , that causes visitors to gasp in delight. Designed by Dr. Carvallo to correspond to
illustrations of 16th century gardens in Du Cereau’s Les
Plus Excellent Bastiments de France, it is comprised of nine large squares
planted with vegetables known to have been grown in the 1500s. 
No two squares are alike; in
fact, from Château Villandry’s turreted roof, the kitchen garden far below
resembles a massive game board, with busy gardeners moving like game pieces
through intricate beds of chives, red lettuce, celery, cabbage, chard and other
historically appropriate vegetables.
There are neither potatoes nor tomatoes, since these are New World
plants that would have been unknown to Du Cereau. The designs of the planting
beds evokes the double and single crosses of the monasteries of the Middle
Ages, and the tree roses adorning the squares represent the monks that might
once have tended such gardens. Romantic benches are shaded by large oak arbors
draped in sweet-scented honeysuckle and climbing roses; surrounding the garden,
low oak fences bear espaliered pear and apple trees.
Sampling
an artichoke or nibbling a lettuce leaf, of course, is out of the question. For unlike most vegetable gardens, this one
is intended as a feast for the eyes, not the palate.
For
more information on the many gardens and the chateau at Villandry, go to their website.