Just a few days after Shawn and I got engaged, we visited the Château de Villandry and its enchanting garden, Le jardin d’Amour (The Garden of Love), for the first time. Villandry, a magnificent Renaissance castle, is located in France’s Loire Valley, a romantic region that’s castle-packed.
Villandry’s Garden of Love has four sections, which depict several types of love:
- Tender Love
- Passionate Love
- Tragic Love &
- Flighty Love
Planted with boxwood hedges, red, pink, yellow, and white flowers, and yew trees, the four squares of the Garden of Love incorporate hearts, masquerade ball masks, fans, and love letters. In the tragic love quadrant, there are dagger blades and swords to represent duels of past centuries. All of these symbols are somewhat abstract, but this doesn’t detract from the garden’s magnificence.
Shawn and I only spent a whirlwind four summer days in the Loire Valley during that post-engagement trip. Nevertheless, we found ourselves so smitten with the region that we moved to nearby Amboise about ten years later.
Today, we’re fortunate to have visited about 20 of the Loire Valley’s castles. Every castle has its own allure, but Villandry is one of my favorites because of its incredible gardens. We don’t often return to the same place twice, but we headed back to Villandry a few months ago for the château’s annual garden festival; that’s when I took this photograph.
Whether it’s Valentine’s Day—or any day—Villandry is a must-see when you visit the Loire Valley.
And if you don’t yet have plans to explore the Loire Valley, perhaps Villandry’s beautiful boxwood designs will inspire your own garden creations!
Joyeuse Saint-Valentin! 🪴♥️
A Bird’s-Eye View of the Garden of Love:
Where in the World?
Photography & text © Tricia A. Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.
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