Cormatin

A French chateau isn't necessarily a castle. It can simply be a grand country estate, with or without a moat. Cormatin is near Blanot and it's chateau is one of the best. I let Anne take the tour of the interior on her own while I read my book in the shade by the nearby stream.

Beyond the stream a moat encircles the building...

Anne thought she still had jet lag so we skipped the kitchen garden and wandered through the formal layout instead.

Last year a worm that becomes a moth arrived in this area and decimated boxwoods...which are used to outline formal garden beds. I had heard that Cormatin had been hit, but that they had supposedly found a way to combat the voracious boxwood worm. I was curious to see how they had fared.

Some hedges had had to be cut to the ground. I suspect that is what happened in this area of the garden because the hedges were lower than usual and a bit scraggly.

I have always liked the double hedge in the background of the above picture. The undulating hedge is in front of the slightly taller flat top hedge. There is actually quite a bit of lawn between them.

We didn't make it all the way to the aviary surrounded by its hedge maze.

The moat really does encircle the chateau.

 Here water from the stream is entering the moat.

Walking down the driveway towards the entrance gates, we noticed the two horses grazing nearby.