All photos taken mid-June 2014.
Villandry's visitor numbers are up by 8% this year, with 10 000 more visitors already than this time last year. They envision these figures holding for the year and next year will start a major (3 million euro) project to alter and improve the entrance to the site and the parking area. Over the past 30 years roughly 15 million euros have been invested in restoring the chateau and grounds (roofs, retaining walls, etc).
Last year Villandry had 350 000 visitors, compared to the most popular of the Touraine Loire Valley chateaux, Chenonceau, which got 850 000. Chambord got 750 000 and Azay le Rideau 320 000.
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French Expression: Une dizaine = ten or so. Une dizaine d'années is a decade. Des centaines = hundreds. Une bonne centaine is 'at least a hundred'. Une quinzaine = fifteen or so, eg il y avait une quinzaine de personnes (= there were about 15 people). Une quinzaine can also be a fortnight.
3 comments:
Must take une bonne centaines de
jardiniers to maintain that
perfection. Wonderful photos.
Susan/Simon - these could actually be my photos. Same scenes and angles.
Wonderful time we had there in 2008.
Sheila: 4 full time gardeners and 5 half time apprentices (the apprentices are at college the other half of their time).
Leon: I think it's near enough impossible to take photos of these places that a gazillion people before you haven't taken :-)
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