Travel Stories: Chateau du Rivau, France Tour 2019

During the France tour I led last month, we visited the lovely Chateau du Rivau. It features a delightful garden and we also got to tour part of the chateau as an added bonus.

The garden was created by Patricia Laigneau and we had hoped to meet up with her during our visit but, unfortunately, our schedules didn’t quite mesh. While the chateau dates back to the 1400s, the garden is of contemporary design.

There are 14 gardens in all and I learned they don’t use any chemicals to maintain it. It includes the Enchanted Forest, The Lover’s Wood, The Orchard of Paradise, the Secret Garden and the Rose Garden. They partner with David Austin roses for this. There are more than 450 varieties, all of which were chosen for their fragrance. The garden displays change throughout the seasons.

And speaking of roses, I fell in love with the rose to the lower right, which is known as ‘Eden’ in the States. In France, it is called ‘Pierre de Ronsard’. We saw this rose at several gardens and I think it is absolutely stunning! Some of the younger blossoms have a pale greenish cast to them, which was so appealing.

The nice thing is that all plants were labeled both in French and Latin. While it might have been difficult to recognize some of the French words, this illustrates how useful it can be to know the Latin names of plants since it truly is the universal language in the world of horticulture!

I hope you’ll enjoy looking at some of the photos I took. Remember that you can click on any of the photos to view a much larger image. (note: if you look at the castle photo above, you’ll notice a fun mole sculpture in the foreground!)

To learn more about Chateau du Rivau, please visit their website. Also, I will have an additional post about Rivau on Friday (July 5) because I wanted to show you some of the fun garden art they had, by using clay pots in a creative way.

The photo directly above is of another gorgeous rose I spotted. The nearby label said it was a Meilland rose called ‘Astronomia’. What a beauty.

If you’re wondering what the flower combination is at the very top of this post, those are Alliums and perennial Salvia, likely ‘May Night’. They sure look cool together, don’t they?