For the first weekend in June, the French have a festival. Well it wouldn't be France without something to celebrate every week or so through the alleged fine weather. This year the weather was mixed for the weekend of the 5th and 6th of June. The Friday and Saturday were extremely hot - on the Saturday it reached 30 degrees in the shade in our garden by 11am and didn't start to cool down until 6pm, so we weren't that interested in going walking in exposed gardens. The weather broke overnight with storms, and Sunday was cool, cloudy and dank - again not completely ideal for enjoying going round gardens.
We had received a programme for the Rendez Vous aux Jardins in one of the local free papers. The offerings are a mix of gardens that are usually open, which are either free for the fete or have something going on - plant sales, demonstrations, guided tours, music, and gardens that are not usually open to the public. We find these ones more interesting I must say.
For the past 10 years as we head to Auverse and Tours we have admired a house set in a park on the side of the road. The house was often shuttered up and didn't look anything more than large and splendid and dating from about 1820 or so. The grounds were interesting as they were very familiar in a funny sort of way, even allowing for the odd avenue of lime trees. As this one was open for the fete, we decided to find out more.
We were met at the side door of the chateau by the lady of the house who took our money, gave us a map of the walks on offer and told us a bit about the place. The reason it was familiar looking was that the park was designed to be like an English park - she mentioned a French designer from 1840, but he drew inspiration from Capability Brown. We then set off to explore. The first surprise was that this was not an estate dating from 1820.
As this image shows, with the remains of a moat, a fortified tower and old castle walls, the domain actually dates from about 1150 or 1200. The park is designed to give views of each facade of the chateau, showing the different epochs of building.
At this point we were looking at the back of the 1820 wing, across meadows and copses. As we admired the view a rather large hare lolloped along the path next to us. We carried on round to see what the 1600-ish facade looked like, going past some magnificent London planes actually surrounded by other trees - in their natural habitat so to speak. That sort of thing is impossible to photograph - you can't get the size and majesty well enough or the required definition - a phone camera is useless in these circumstances. Instead enjoy the rather fine copper beech.
Not really the same house is it? At this point we turned away from the house and walked along the remains of an oak avenue through more hay meadows. We disturbed two fine red deer does, who charged off into the shelter of the woodland. You could see where they were damaging the rather overblown hay crop, but I don't think the people at the chateau mind that at all. The final view is of the front of the house with its French parterre and lime avenue, but much closer than you would see from the road.
Anyway, we are very grateful for the chance to enjoy the park and understand more about the chateau itself. I wonder where will go for the Rendez Vous aux Jardins next year?
I love these gardening schemes - even if it's just ordinary town gardens! I pass a house on my morning walk which is vaguely French in style - I will have to take a photo to e-mail to you!!
Posted by: Anne Donald | 18 June 2010 at 06:47 PM