I put up some of our photos from our visit to the chateau and gardens at Villandry on Wednesday: Villandry, France. I saved the photos related to our lunch and the huge potager for Weekend Cooking today.
Our lunch was at the cafe near the front gate of the chateau. We all fell in love with the place mats, even before we saw the garden that inspired them. Some of our group purchased place mats and napkins at the gift store to take home.
Here are the “love gardens” that inspired the place mats. We didn’t see them at their best because the interior plantings that provide the color were missing. The lettuces that provided spring color had just been removed but the annual flowers for summer color weren’t yet put in.
Villandry has an enormous potager (kitchen garden). Our best view was from the roof of the 12th century tower that is all that remains of the original fortress.
Food from the potager is eaten, but I got the impression that the priority goes to display. My fantasy was that when the beds are switched from spring to summer plantings, every man, woman, and child in the village eats salad for a week to use up all the lettuce that is providing much of the color in these photos.
More photos from Villandry and the other gardens we visited in France are on my Flickr page: Joy’s Photostream.
I’m linking this post to Saturday Snapshot at West Metro Mommy Reads: Saturday Snapshot – July 13. She has pretty flower photos today and links to many more snapshots on blogs around the web.
Weekend Cooking is hosted each week at Beth Fish Reads. Today’s post, Weekend Cooking: Relish by Daphe Oz, features a book she describes as “more than a cookbook; it’s also a guide to putting yourself on the path to your dream life.” Check out the link list at the bottom of the post for more cooking, eating, gardening, and other food adventures.
