The castle gardens

From this terrace, you can see where the 16th century castle’s gardens were located up until the French Revolution. It is a large rectangular space, surrounded by walls, at the foot of the moats. Reaching the gardens from the castle required crossing a bridge that was closed by a door, and climbing a double stairway at the back of the rampart. The gardens opened up onto the landscape, but for security reasons, remained enclosed and separate from the castle.
The gardens used to be divided into small square compartments, but in the 18th century, they were replaced by knot gardens, where orange trees in crates were placed. In winter, the orange trees were taken inside the orangery, at the northern tip of the garden. In the 19th century, the stud farm had stables built, but maintained the general organization, with a central lane in the axe of the castle. The conifer trees were planted in the 1950s.
Behind you, the beds of grass lined with box trees date back to the late 19th century, as does the English garden on the esplanade by the race track.