The Loire Valley, a land of great gardens
If the châteaux make the fame of the Loire Valley, its gardens make its secret charm. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape, the territory holds a rare density of parks and gardens, several of which carry the national "Remarkable Garden" label. You find everything here: Renaissance kitchen gardens drawn with a string line, fragrant rose gardens, mazes, water gardens, bold contemporary creations. The mild Loire climate and the richness of its soils explain this profusion. For the visitor, it is another way of exploring the region, more sensory, delighting botany enthusiasts and families alike. From Meung-sur-Loire, several of these green jewels lie less than an hour away.
Villandry, the most famous Renaissance garden
It is impossible to speak of Loire gardens without beginning at Villandry. About 1h20 from Meung-sur-Loire, this château is world-renowned for its terraced gardens, among the finest in Europe. The ornamental kitchen garden lines up its squares of vegetables and flowers in colourful chequerboards, the ornamental garden unrolls its box-hedge embroidery in the shape of hearts and allegories, the water garden soothes with its perfect symmetry. Everything is drawn with a string line, designed to be admired from above on the terraces. Allow at least 1h30 for the gardens alone. It is the unmissable visit for anyone who loves botany: a living lesson in the art of the French formal garden.
The International Garden Festival of Chaumont-sur-Loire
At 50 minutes from Meung-sur-Loire, Chaumont-sur-Loire hosts each year, from April to November, the International Garden Festival, a global rendezvous of landscape creation. Dozens of ephemeral gardens, conceived by landscape designers from around the world around an annual theme, are there to wander through in the estate's park. It is inventive, surprising, at times poetic or campaigning — an immersion in the garden of tomorrow. The estate also blends contemporary art and heritage, in a sumptuous park overlooking the Loire. As the festival changes each season, you can return year after year without ever seeing the same thing twice. For the curious lover of botany and design, it is a major stop in the Loire Valley.
The Château du Rivau and its fairy-tale gardens
Further south, towards Chinon, the Château du Rivau cultivates a world apart. Its gardens, awarded the "Remarkable Garden" label, blend botanical collections — notably a superb rose garden rich in fragrant varieties — with a fairy-tale staging inspired by folk tales. You wander among contemporary sculptures, Gargantua's kitchen garden of giant vegetables and luxuriant borders, in a playful atmosphere that enchants children and adults alike. Le Rivau is a little further from Meung-sur-Loire, but it combines ideally with a day at Chinon or in southern Touraine. For lovers of roses and of the imagination, it is one of the prettiest botanical surprises in the region.
The park of Beauregard and its garden gallery
At 45 minutes from Meung-sur-Loire, the château of Beauregard is not only its famous Gallery of Illustrious Figures. Its park, vast and peaceful, holds a remarkable "Garden of Portraits", composed of green rooms in graded colours, designed by contemporary landscapers. You stroll there far from the crowds of the great sites, among lawns, century-old trees and refined floral compositions. It is the ideal place to combine culture — the gallery of 327 historical portraits — with a botanical ramble, all on a single ticket. Beauregard offers this double reading, indoor and green, which makes it a complete and restful stop. An excellent choice for a half-day blending art and gardens.
The Roquelin rose garden, the secret right by Meung
Here is my gem of proximity. Just a few minutes from Meung-sur-Loire, around the Roses Anciennes André Eve and the Roquelin rose garden, you discover a world devoted entirely to the rose, and especially to old, fragrant varieties. In spring and early summer, when the roses burst into bloom, the walk is a delight for the nose as much as for the eyes. It is a more confidential place than the great château gardens, on a human scale, perfect for a quiet morning without driving very far. Ask about the opening periods and hours, as the magic of a rose garden depends on the flowering. A botanical joy a stone's throw from La Maison du Château.
Mazes, château gardens and other curiosities
The Loire Valley holds many other green pleasures. Cheverny, 50 minutes away, dazzles in spring with its hundreds of thousands of tulips, its structured kitchen garden and its arboretum. Chenonceau sets the gardens of Diane and of Catherine on either side of the Cher. Some sites offer plant mazes, much loved by children in summer. Not to mention the ornamental kitchen gardens, the landscaped parks and the arboretums that punctuate almost every château. This variety lets you tailor the visit to each person: purists will head for the embroidered parterres, families for the mazes, rose-lovers for the rose gardens. Here, the garden is never a mere backdrop: it is a destination in its own right.
The best season for lovers of botany
The secret of a fine garden visit lies in the calendar. Spring, from April to June, is generally the ideal moment: tulips in April (spectacular at Cheverny), roses in May and June (a peak at Roquelin as at Le Rivau), radiant greenery and mild temperatures. Summer prolongs the flowering and brings the mazes to life, though the borders sometimes suffer in the heat. Autumn offers a more melancholy beauty, with the colours of the foliage and, at Chaumont, a Garden Festival that runs until November. Tailor your choice to the season of your stay: each period has its star gardens. From Meung-sur-Loire, you can always put together a green itinerary that matches the calendar of nature.
From the timeless embroidery of Villandry to the confidential rose garden of Roquelin, by way of the Chaumont Festival and the fairy-tale gardens of Le Rivau, the Loire Valley is a great book of gardens to leaf through with the seasons. From La Maison du Château in Meung-sur-Loire, choose the right moment, and treat yourself to a stay as botanical as it is steeped in heritage.