A French landscape architect, Louis Benech did his apprenticeship at Hillier Nurseries in the south of England. The redevelopment of the Tuileries Gardens in collaboration with Pascal Cribier was his first creation at a historic site. Some 250 accomplishments around the world would follow, including the Sun Garden at Villandry and the gardens of th [..]

A boulingrin is a flat, sunken area of lawn edged by grassy banks. The word is used particularly in the context of chateau grounds and public gardens. Taken from the English bowling green, it first appeared in the French language under Louis XIV.

Ornamental garden parterres in whorls imitating classical leaves. Strictly speaking, from the 18th century onwards, “parterres de broderie” were parterres containing only dwarf box in shapes representing leaves and florets to imitate embroidered fabrics. The embroidery figures had to be clearly distinguishable. They were never repeated since their [..]

A doctor of Spanish descent, Joachim Carvallo moved to Paris in 1879 to work with Charles Richet (winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1913). In 1899, he married Ann Coleman, the young heiress of a wealthy American family of iron and steel magnates. The couple bought the Villandry estate in 1906. Carvallo devoted the rest of his life to restor [..]

Count Michel-Ange of Castellane was the King’s Ambassador to the Ottoman Porte (1741 to 1747) and Brigadier of the King’s Armies. He was born into one of the oldest and most illustrious families of Provence. He acquired the Villandry estate in 1754. The Marquis of Castellane died at Villandry on 26 September 1782, and is buried in the seigneurial t [..]

16th-century French engraver and architect whose reputation was built upon his best-known work, Les Plus Excellents Bâtiments de France

Hornbeam hedge. The hornbeam can grow to a considerable height and lends itself to clipped hedges.

The term ‘Chateaux of the Loire’ refers to a series of chateaux in the Loire Valley built or renovated in the French Renaissance. During that period, the Court of the Kings of France, with its seat in central France, had some magnificent mansions built. The Loire Valley owes its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List to this architectural ri [..]

The former name of Villandry.

Term derived from the Latin fabrica, meaning ‘construction’, used initially by landscape painters to denote the buildings with which they adorned their pictures. It shifted in meaning to be used subsequently by gardeners and architects to refer to the architectural elements that embellished gardens.