A French garden to behold

I must confess, I am a little bit reluctant to get off our coach on this grey, drizzly morning.

We’ve arrived at yet another chateau on our tour of France’s Loire Valley and having already visited a bunch of these grandiose country estates in the past few days (when the sun was shining), I’m not sure I really need or want to see another, especially in this unseasonably drab June weather.

But the truth about the chateaux on our itinerary is that each one is different, with its own stories to tell and something (or many things) particularly special and unique to admire. And so it is with the Chateau de Villandry.

Despite the weather, we’re not actually going inside this 16th-century palace. Instead we put up our umbrellas and embrace its crowning jewel: the fabulous gardens that span about 6ha of this estate in the village of Villandry by the River Cher, a tributary of the Loire.

Directing us to key areas and vantage points, the official audio guide provides a potted history of the estate, which was developed in the 1530s by Jean Le Breton, the finance minister of King Francois I, then sold and tweaked several times over the centuries.

Since 1906, it has been in the Carvallo family. Current owner Henri is the great-grandson of Dr Joachim Carvallo, a Spanish-born scientist, and Ann Coleman, an American steel heiress.

Driven by a passion for history and horticulture, the couple set about restoring the Villandry chateau and gardens to their former renaissance glory. There’s a superb overview from the elevated belvedere, where you can fully appreciate the geometric and arabesque designs of the various themed gardens. Love — and its contrasting emotions, from tenderness to tragedy — is symbolised in allegorical box beds shaped like daggers, flames and hearts, while fruits, herbs and vegetables have been flamboyantly planted.

Ambling around the gardens beneath my umbrella, I hear birdsong and church bells ringing from Villandry village.

We’re almost all alone in the gardens, apart from the staff, who are spraying and cultivating plants and mowing lawns.

The maintenance here is a formidable job for the team of 10 gardeners, supported by seasonal workers. There is an estimated 52km of boxed hedging that must be pruned annually, plus about 85,000 vegetable plants, 125,000 flowers and 324 rose bushes to be tended to. Some are grown in the chateau’s greenhouses then moved to the gardens at the optimal time.

For the past decade, to boost biodiversity, pesticides and other chemical insecticides have been banned here, while old-fashioned French gardening instruments like the grelinette (a broad fork), the poussette (planting tool) and the paroir (a sharp-edged tool that makes clean, crisp lines at the edge of garden beds and borders) are back in use.

The rain has stopped now, so I shake off my umbrella and inhale the gardens’ heightened aromas, fresh from the downpour. I catch a flurry of pleasing scents as I pass rows of leeks, spinach, thyme, tarragon, mint, chamomile, tomatoes and aubergine. I decide not to get lost in the hornbeam hedge labyrinth, but I happily watch a pair of swans gliding along a small lake shaped like a Louis XV-style mirror. I reflect on my earlier semi-reluctance to get off the coach. What a lazy fool I was. This is the last chateau we’re visiting on this Loire portion of our tour and thanks to these gorgeous gardens, it’s one I’ll remember fondly.

+ Steve McKenna was a guest of Albatross Tours which has not influenced this story, or read it before publication. fact file + Beginning in Paris, Albatross’ 19-day La Grande France Tour includes a three-night stay in the Loire Valley and outings to some of the region’s finest chateaux. The tour runs in May, June, August and September in 2026 with the price $15,887 per person (twin) and $20,887 (solo). The itinerary is also scheduled for dates in May, June and September in 2027. See albatrosstours.com.au + If visiting the Chateau de Villandry independently, it’s a 25-minute drive from the city of Tours. The gardens are open daily apart from December 25 and a ticket is €8.50 ($14) for adults and €5.50 ($9) for children aged eight to 17. A combined chateau and garden ticket is €14 ($24) and €8 ($13.50) respectively. The chateau is also open most of this year, except for a planned fortnight’s closure in November 2026. See chateauvillandry.fr + For more information on visiting the Loire Valley, see tourainevaldeloire.com