Château de la Guyonnière

The Château de la Guyonnière, in the Deux-Sèvres, dates from the 14th century. Despite alterations in the 15th and 16th centuries, it keeps a marked feudal appearance. It forms a quadrilateral with corner towers, one housing a dovecote, and is entered through a fortified gate.

The gardens, reached by a small drawbridge forming a postern, are surrounded by deep moats and consist of nine medieval-inspired squares mixing flowers, vegetables, honey plants, medicinal and aromatic herbs, fruit, roses, shrubs and old fruit trees. There is a bee garden with four hives rebuilt after a 15th-century illumination, a 'paradise' or festival garden with a pool, a turf bench around a very old pear tree and a planted stage for concerts and performances from May to September, a soft fruit garden, collections of shrubs, a butterfly garden and three gardens of medieval plants. The squares are linked by two arbours of fire-bent wood covered with vines and roses.

← Other sites in Deux-Sèvres