Photo : Henry Salomé / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Château de Mongenan
The Château de Mongenan, in the Gironde, was built in 1736 by the architect Le Hérissey for Baron Antoine de Gascq, president of the Parlement of Guyenne. The history of the monument is bound up with that of this family of great feudal barons, whose most illustrious member was Cardinal François de Sourdis.
The botanical garden has kept its 18th-century appearance exactly. Every summer it surprises with the heavy scent of its tuberoses and jasmines, and a 'clock of scents' recalls one of Linnaeus's key discoveries. Old vegetables, local fruit tree varieties and 18th-century roses transport visitors to a vanished world, with its everyday features: kitchen garden, rabbit hutch, pig house and green theatre. The estate has kept a self-sufficient character that is now almost unique, at least in the Bordeaux area.
