— home to some very famous chateau gardens including Villandry. I had seen countless pictures and had lots of postcards too, from lucky friends who had visited Villandry. I was not disappointed: this garden was a fantastic sight with its parterres of flowers and vegetables neatly arranged in colour-themed patterns. Visitors of every age ambled through the maze of paths on a mellow autumn afternoon, as gently as the peacock butterflies on the tagetes. The pride and pleasure owner Henri Carvallo took in showing us round was evident for all. You may think this garden is a product of the French aristocracy but Henri’s great grandfather Joachim Cavallo was a Spanish-born doctor who came to Paris to study. He met and married an American intern called Ann Coleman, the daughter of a master blacksmith from Pennsylvania. They sank their savings into the chateau in 1906, primarily intending to house a collection of Spanish art. The First World War intervened and part of Villandry became a hospital with patients tended by Joachim and Ann. The gardens grew vegetables to feed the patients and staff. After the war, Joachim and Ann decided to put the Renaissance style back into the house. They began by replacing the false windows, which made the château look like a barracks, which it had been. They lined up new ones under the dormer windows and gradually, with the help of a hundred builders, the castle’s facade began to come alive again. Perhaps the view from those new windows inspired the couple to restore the gardens too. Any trip to Villandry should always start with the house so the gardens can be admired from above. By 1920, Joachim and Ann were sharing the gardens on the basis that “those who are honoured enough to own one must understand the importance of making it accessible to the public”. In 1924, Joachim, now a French subject, set up Demeure Historique to ensure the survival of ancient houses and monuments. Villandry’s 10 gardeners tend almost 15 acres, split into four gardens, organically. There are three terraces that stretch to the village and 12th-century church on one side and to woodland on the other. A central canal of water forms one axis and walls protect the garden from cold winds in winter. Villandry usually gets at least a week of snow every winter. Summers are hotter and zinnias, dahlias, amaranthus, basil and perilla (a purple basil-like plant) grow much more vigorously than in England. The design of box-lined squares intersected by fine gravel paths is a system from the Middle Ages to allow gardeners access from all sides without walking on the ground. In the Renaissance, roses, fountains, pergolas and flower-covered bowers were added and the two were combined to form decorative vegetable gardens like the one at Villandry. No two squares are planted in the same way and the design changes every year. The mixture of jade-green cabbages, silver-grey leeks, wine-red chard and bright green carrot tops, creates a breathtaking tapestry. If gardens interest you, do try to visit.