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Strolling through the orchards and gardens of the Loire Valley chatêaux feels like stepping straight into Wonderland. Traditional French kitchen gardens are enjoying a renaissance, enchanting visitors with their wide variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs. This delicious new attraction hearkens back to the days when chatêaux and monasteries grew their own fruits and vegetables, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.The most impressive kitchen garden is undoubtably the one at the Chatêaux de Villandry. The gardeners there cultivate only those varieties of fruits and vegetables that were available in the 16th century, drawing their inspiration from popular landscape designs of the period and following the precepts of organic agriculture.