Candes Saint-Martin, my favourite spot in La Touraine.

Monday 25 July 2011

Walmer castle – the ornamental garden

When you see Walmer castle from the main road on the seafront, it looks as if it is surrounded by large, rather neglected looking woodlands. Of course there is the neatly mowed lawn in front of the castle, but there are no well tended and colourful flower beds to brighten up the place.

However, when you cross the entrance bridge over the now empty moat, you can not only catch a glimpse of the sea, but you also realize that there is more to this castle than just stone walls and some trees.



The now empty moat
and - in the distance - a glimpse of the sea.

After visiting the rooms and gun terrace of the castle, we stepped out into the gardens. The main attraction is definitely the elegant garden commissioned by Queen Elisabeth the Queen Mother – lovingly called the Queen Mum - who in 2002 died at the incredible age of 102. It’s very beautiful and quiet and it isn’t very hard to imagine the grand lady herself strolling over the lawn, feeding the gold fish in the pond, admiring the water lilies and the many roses and other plants in the wild-looking, though carefully tended flower beds that line this rectangular garden.

Just enjoy!








Notice the gold fish that is trying to attract my attention! 


Colourfull flower beds.


Fragrant lilies.

8 comments:

Mark said...

I'm back from the beach and it looks like you've been busy.
I need to let you know that I love that pond. When I grow up, I want a pond just like that but I'll use mine as a pool.
And that empty moat is just too cool!
Your Friend, m.

Jessi @ Life: The Epic Journey said...

Love the goldfish pond! I'm with Mark, a shallow lounge pool would be incredible, complete with water lilies!

chm said...

Monet would have loved the second and third photo. And so do I, by the way!

Craig said...

Beautiful shots of a beautiful spot Martine! Those water lilies are gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

Those are lovely pictures. The castles seems very peaceful and gracious.

Amanda said...

Just lovely!

Carolyn said...

You can never post too many pictures of flowers.

ladybird said...

Mark, I hope you had a nice time at the beach. No beach weather here!!!
As for the moat, luckily nobody turned on the tap while we were exploring it :)

Jessi, Swimming among the gold fish ... what a great (slippery) idea!

Chm, Monet's waterlilies are almost better than the real thing ...

Craig, I love waterlilies too. Pity I don't have the adequate pond to grow them at home.

Dedene, Walmer castle came as a complete surprise to me. Seeing from the outside, I had never thought it would be so elegant and that the gardens would be so beautiful.

Nadege, Rightly so!

Carolyn, You won't be disappointed.