Southwest of Tours lies the Chateau de Villandry, a 16^th century castle built by François I’s Finance Minister.  Currently privately owned, the castle is one of the many impressive chateaux and gardens that dot the Loire Valley.

Renaissance-style gardens are designed in perfect symmetry and the ones photographed above are part of the kitchen garden, where the vegetables were planted for the sustenance of the chateau. Gardens like this were originally created in the Middle Ages by bowl-haircut Abbey monks who took great pleasure in creating gardens with geometric patterns … today a quintessential characteristic of any French garden design.

Although a vegetable garden, only the hedges know what acts of prohibited love took place betwixt the tomatoes !!!