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!