Tag Archives: french garden design

Gardens of France: Chateau de Chenonceau

Posted on by Katie Schmidt

Refined, elegant, and dare I say…lady-like? The castle and gardens of Chenonceau are truly a must-see in the Loire Valley. It is known as the ladies castle because of its many famous female inhabitants, as well as the fact that its construction and upkeep was overseen by women. With formal gardens surrounding it on two sides, and an extensive estate with woods, hedge maze, vegetable plot, and a medicinal herb garden, one could easily spent the entire day here. This is one of my favorite gardens of France, but sadly we only had a few hours to admire the grounds and take a few notes on the exquisite landscape designs!

view of Diane de Poiteirs garden and Chateau de Chenonceau
View of Chenonceau from Diane de Poitiers garden, from Wikimedia
orange and green floral display in a stone urn, with ornamental grasses and dried elements. sitting on a elegant table against a stone wall in the castle Chenonceau.
Fresh floral arrangements grace every well-preserved and carefully restored room, with flowers picked from the grounds.

A Brief History

Owned by the monarchy, mistresses, government financiers, and chocolatiers, this property has a fascinating history. Straddling the river Cher, it was used as a military hospital in WWI and a secret escape corridor in WWII. But none of its history defined it as much as the rivalry between Catherine and Diane. Catherine Medici was the wife of King Henry II, Diane was his mistress. These women had a famous feud with a lasting imprint on the castle and grounds. Henry gifted the Chateau de Chenonceau to Diane, much to Catherine’s chagrin. Once Henry died, Catherine promptly took the castle back and sent Diane packing. Among the many renovations and additions each lady made, the gardens stand as an obvious example of their contrasting styles and personalities.

View of Chenonceau from the Medici garden.
Hermann Luyken, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dueling Gardens

On one side of the entrance to the chateau stands the garden of Catherine de Poitiers, and on the other side the rebuttle: the garden of Catherine Medici. Both gardens are built on platforms above the banks of the river banks, and both exhibit the elegant features popular in the 16th century:

  • long straight gravel pathways (French parterre style)
  • small sections of very short shorn lawn separated by low hedges
  • topiary and ball-shaped shrubs
  • all paths leading to a central fountain or pool
Diane de Poitiers garden, one of the famous gardens of France
Garden of Diane de Poitiers, complete with its dwarf fruit trees and carefully manicured scroll pattern made of Santolina.

But they are unique in tone. The Medici garden is orderly, if slightly less symmetrical than Diane’s. It contains more squares rectangles while the Poitier garden is laid out in triangles. Catherine’s garden is modest in size, while Diane’s stretches on lavishly. But, many agree that the Medici garden has the best view of the Chateau, perhaps purposely planned that way due to her great affection and attachment to the residence. The memorable feature in the Garden of Diane de Poitier are the “santolina swirls”: grey santolina, trimmed very low, in delicate scroll patterns throughout the innermost lawns. Diane’s garden is grand, showy, and sprawling, while Catherine’s is elegant and slightly understated. While Diane’s has a flashy fountain in the middle, Catherine’s simply has a reflecting pool.

Catherine Medici's garden at Chenonceau (taken in October 2023), one of the famous gardens of France
The Garden of Catherine Medici, with its dark leaves sweet potato vine and the ornamental grasses (Pennisetum?) bursting upwards.

Formality with Flair

While formal gardens are not my particular taste, I really enjoyed the way these gardeners are playing with color palette. Dark leaf ipomea constrasts with silver santolia and lavender. The grasses rush upwards out of the other ground-hugging foliage like fireworks (which interestingly enough, were used for the first time in France at this very location). Rather than feeling stuffy and boring, the contrast of dark and light keeps it interesting and the winding shapes lead your eye in unexpected directions. On Diane’s side of things, a strict adherence to shades in purple, pink and whites keeps an otherwise very thick, diverse beds looking intentional.

A garden border of hibiscus, salvia, and castor plants in the colors purple, pink and burgundy. Plants range from 3ft to 6ft high, and the chancellory building is in the background.
Pinks, purples, and the burgundy of the caster bean leaves all blend together to create an almost monochrome landscape design.
A low hedge in the vegetable garden area, made of what I believe to be apple trees, in the espalier style.

Grandness, Scale, and Planning for the Future

the long entryway lined with plane trees (sycamore) that leads to Chateau de Chenonceau. This is a very memorable scene from one of the most famous gardens of France.
Chris enjoying the walk to the chateau, lined with massive plane trees.

One of the most memorable moments of Chenonceau is the tree lined entryway. It stretches on for the entire stately avenue and perfectly framing the castle up ahead. The property also has a hedge maze made of yew bushes, as well as a great collection of specialty trees. These types of displays only work with patience. For these grand landscapes to take shape, it takes more than just a growing season. Years, and in some cases, centuries of growth have to be accounted for. So if you have big plans for your own property, perhaps a tree lined driveway of your own or a prairie reconstruction, remember not to be intimidated by big plans! Start now to create something truly spectacular and awe-inspiring for future generations.

A monkey puzzle tree, Araucaria araucana surrounded by lawn on the Chenonceau grounds, a site popular site to visit among the gardens of France.
An unexpected sight: a monkey puzzle tree, native to Chile!
They had an extensive collection of rare trees.

A mass planting of Hydrangea along the fence of the vegetable garden and maintenance area. Even the mundane and functional spaces are beautifully kept!

You don’t have to go all the way to France to experience excellent landscape design – implement these lessons into your own garden and get that royal touch of elegance! Keeping a simple color palette, use clean lines and repeating geometric patterns to achieve a timeless aesthetic. And for further inspiration, take a virtual tour of Chenonceau here. There are only a few more posts left in our gardens of France series, so stay tuned!

Gardens of France: Villandry

Posted on by Katie Schmidt

I just returned from a trip to France, and amongst my sampling of wine/cheese/bread, I also toured gardens. From the famous Versailles to unnamed courtyards in every small village, French people have a long history with landscape design. Gorgeous gardens are open to the public in every part of the country. This post is the first in a multi-part series exploring design inspiration we can import into our own humble yards. The climate may be different and the grounds palatial, but French gardens offer classic lessons to be learned about the design of a cohesive and pleasing landscape.

First up, Chateau de Villandry.

A Brief History

350,000 people per year visit this UNESCO site for good reason: its meticulously maintained gardens are unparalleled for their use of color and theme. This castle has too much history to recount here, but the short version goes like this: built on a Roman site that later became a medieval fortress and eventually a very refined 16th century family chateau, it has changed hands many times, hosted royal house guests and was the site of the 1189 treaty between England and France. The gardens transformed with each era. Lucky for us they are now restored to the Renaissance style by the Carvallos, owners since the early 1900s.

Divide and Conquer

Contrary to what you might think, subdividing a garden can actually make it feel larger. It leads your eye just around the corner or up the path, fooling your mind into thinking there is always more just ahead. From the elevated platform overlooking Villandry garden you can see multiple layers and divisions. Within the garden, further subdivisions are based on garden theme. Herb Garden, Kitchen Garden, Music Garden, Love Garden, Cross Garden…all featuring different designs and usage, kept visually separate by hedges or elevation difference.

How can I use these ideas at home?

  • Gardens large and small can benefit from sectioning, creating rooms and the illusion of more space
  • Use greenery, hardscaping, or natural elevation change to divide a space

Layering the Landscape

To achieve a landscape that has depth and visual movement, you can use layers. You can see in the following example of Villandry’s Sun Chamber, one way to layer is by using height. For a very professional yet unfussy aesthetic, plan for the mature height of your plants to climb steadily from groundcover to tree line. You can also layer with color to create depth, as we see in the photos below.

How can I use these ideas at home?

  • Think vertically about the layers of your garden, and add any that are missing
  • Use repeated colors and contrast to draw the eye along and create overlapping layers.

Good Framing

In all of our landscape classes we drone on about framing: borders, edging, and clean lines to contain otherwise “messy” plantings. This principle is not new, and is put to good use at Villandry. Some of their gardens are less formal and very diverse, but neatly contained by tiny boxwood hedges. While boxwoods are not great growers in our area, you can achieve this look with hardscaping for a much lower maintenance option, or use heat-tolerant plants that take trimming well like lavender, rosemary, yew, and St. Johns wort.

How can I use these ideas at home?

  • for a formal look, greater species diversity must equal defined, well maintained borders
  • metal edging, rock, or clean mulch lines are lower maintenance than a green hedge border
  • play around with the contrast between airy/busy/whimsical and clean, straight framing.

Design with Perspective

In this amazing gardenscape, the view changes based on where you stand: at a window from the chateau, from the bottom level of the garden looking out, or from the front entrance. While the area is naturally low, large stone retaining walls give a ‘sunken garden’ effect. This creates closeness and privacy even in such a huge estate but still allows the viewer to take it all in from an elevated viewing point.

View of Villandry gardens from the terrace. Directly below is the love garden, telling stories of the many types of love through the shape of the hedges.

How can I use these ideas at home?

  • when designing your landscape, think about the place you will most often view it from
  • elevate or sink areas of your garden to highlight certain features

For a deeper look into the gardens of Villandry and a virtual tour, visit their site here. Follow along for more posts coming soon in this series about more famous French gardens and their impact on modern landscaping.