Villandry and Langeais: The Renaissance Gardens and One of France's Oldest Stone Keeps
Centre-Val de Loire, France
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225
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+100 France
= 325 total
1 day
Villandry and Langeais: The Renaissance Gardens and One of France's Oldest Stone Keeps
225 + 100 XP
Villandry, finished in 1536, is famous for its geometric Renaissance gardens of low box hedges. Down the Loire, Langeais keeps one of the oldest stone keeps in France, raised by Fulk Nerra, Count of Anjou, who seized the place in 994 — only the aula of Doué-la-Fontaine, walled in stone from about 950, is reckoned older — and in its château Charles VIII married Anne of Brittany on 6 December 1491; between them the Pile de Cinq-Mars, a Gallo-Roman funerary tower 29.5m high, stands over the river.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Walk the six hectares of Villandry's gardens down the four terraces, from the ornamental vegetable garden to the water garden, and work out which beds Dr Joachim Carvallo laid back out from 1906 using Androuet du Cerceau's old engravings
2
of 4
In Villandry's courtyard, pick out the 12th-century keep of the old fortress of Colombiers, altered in the 14th century and now swallowed inside one of the wings — this is where Henry II of England came before Philip Augustus on 4 July 1189 to admit his defeat, the peace that handed Touraine to the French crown
3
of 4
In Louis XI's château at Langeais, stand in the room where Charles VIII married Anne of Brittany at seven in the morning on 6 December 1491 — she was 14, and the marriage ended Brittany's independence — then walk up into the park to the two right-angled walls that are all that is left of Fulk Nerra's keep
4
of 4
Walk up to the Pile de Cinq-Mars and count the twelve brick panels of geometric pattern near the top of its south face — nobody knows what they mean, and no other Roman monument in France carries anything like them; Rabelais already used the tower as a landmark in Gargantua in 1534
Walk the six hectares of Villandry's gardens down the four terraces, from the ornamental vegetable garden to the water garden, and work out which beds Dr Joachim Carvallo laid back out from 1906 using Androuet du Cerceau's old engravings
In Villandry's courtyard, pick out the 12th-century keep of the old fortress of Colombiers, altered in the 14th century and now swallowed inside one of the wings — this is where Henry II of England came before Philip Augustus on 4 July 1189 to admit his defeat, the peace that handed Touraine to the French crown
In Louis XI's château at Langeais, stand in the room where Charles VIII married Anne of Brittany at seven in the morning on 6 December 1491 — she was 14, and the marriage ended Brittany's independence — then walk up into the park to the two right-angled walls that are all that is left of Fulk Nerra's keep
Walk up to the Pile de Cinq-Mars and count the twelve brick panels of geometric pattern near the top of its south face — nobody knows what they mean, and no other Roman monument in France carries anything like them; Rabelais already used the tower as a landmark in Gargantua in 1534
Before you go
The gardens at Villandry are open every day of the year bar 25 December, but the château itself is not: it shuts from 12 to 27 November and again from 4 January to 6 February, so the courtyard activity that asks you to pick out the old keep of Colombiers inside the wing needs a day inside that calendar. In winter the gardens close at 5pm. The six hectares of box are cut back and the vegetable garden is bare between November and April, so the famous geometry is there but the colour is not — this is a January walk for the pattern, not for the planting.
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XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
225 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
325 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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