Issue No. 14

There are sculptures which are quirky and
intriguing, firing the imagination and often
making you smile. Discover giant
Wellington boots and an enormous saki
cup with a rather cheeky inside. There's
even a Rapunzel tower complete with rope.
A delicate carousel brings oohs and ah’s. A
giant mole, the gardeners enemy, is a great
resting place for an albino peahen called
Dame Blanche. It calls to its mate, another
gorgeous white peacock, it has a smaller
fan of feathers then the colourful peacocks
that strut the grounds but the white birds
are no less impressive.
Caroline, Patricia's daughter, who works in
the garden with her mother, and who
speaks impeccable English, says she has
been training the peacocks to respond to
her call. She lets out a “cwaac” noise and
one of the peacocks named Leon calls
back and comes to find in us in the floral
chapel. The original building was in such a
bad state that it couldn’t be saved so
Patricia planted a nave of flowers and
covered the walls with roses, it’s peaceful
and quite magnificent.
Everywhere you look there is something to
discover, to fall in love with and when you
think it can't get any better – you can go
into the chateau which the family have
restored beautifully.
Every year an exhibition is held, one year it
was monsters another year it was secrets,
in 2016 it was ghosts and included works
from artists around the world - sculptures,
paintings, photos that were quirky, elegant,
mysterious and fun and had visitors of all
ages enraptured.
In 2017 the exhibition will be "La vie de
château".
Pictures: below, nave of white roses
where the chapel once stood; right top
the Chateau and its fairy tale turrets;
bottom left, a bird in the garden;
bottom right, the giant mole!