Les Jardins du Château de Pizay

french style gardens established by André Le Nôtre in 1692 featuring topiaries depicting a life-size chess game. free entrance to the gardens.

Established in 1962 by the Nanton family, this characteristically french garden is amazing and inspires us to daydream. The designer, a famous architect of the Sun King's court, wanted to breathe life into this park. It is a dance-like invitation for the topiaries to dance around the stone lady. The cold and rigid statuses are replaced by hedges or pruned trees. Inherited from the Romans, this topiary art is a form of plant architecture. All the different species of plants interact and complement each other to create a life-size chess game with 32 pieces. As a result, the chessboard symbolizing royalty comes to life around the white nymph located at the center of the garden at the intersection of the 8 alleys.