Les vergers-potagers du château de Montigny-sur-Aube

Like all aristocratic residences, the Château de Montigny-sur-Aube boasts a superb 5,244 m² walled orchard and vegetable garden in the 19th century - a veritable food garden - where several hundred varieties of fruit, planted on espaliers of various shapes or on counter-espaliers, cleverly cover all the 3.60 m high walls and ironwork arches. At the centre of a cross of paths is the gardener's pond with its beautiful Renaissance fountain and, in front of the melliferous garden, a superb 19th-century apiary where the pollinating bees are busy. As for the vegetable gardens, in season you'll discover over a hundred varieties of tomato in teepees amid squares of marigolds. In the herb garden, a whole collection of aromatic plants supplies the farmhouse kitchen with incomparable flavours. As for the red fruit gardens, amidst the quarter-stemmed plum trees, you'll discover blackberries and raspberries well tamed in their ironwork crates. The team of gardeners are passionate about perpetuating this 19th-century know-how, and will tell you all about it as you go along, thanks to the audioguide. There's even a model at the back of the apiary explaining the principles behind it. At certain times of the year, this unique site also offers pruning, grafting and cutting courses for the general public (registration required).

Have lunch at the château's farmhouse inn, where the chef will offer you his "Coffret Fraîcheur", a real meal made from our organic fruit and vegetable harvests, his "dessert of the day" and his sorbets, on the terrace or in the orangery.