Jardin du moulin d’Echoiseau

It is at the end of the XIIth century when was dug on the side of a natural slope lining the river of Mazangé, a reach receiving the water of the river and restoring it lower 800 meters, downstream to a small waterfall, making turn a wheel with gores of a mill, and giving it its name: the mill of Echoiseau, there where the water falls. This mill belonged in 1186 on the Chapitre of Chartres. On December 17th, 1754, it was bought by Louis François de Musset and completely reconstructed after a fire in 1759. It returned then to Victor Donatien de Musset, the father of Alfred. The future poet, then from 9 to 15 years old, stayed in summer residence with his family there, during the Restauration. Afterward, it found its first function and turned until the middle of the XXth century.

The garden is an original work of the new owners, begun in 2001, between the reach and the river, around an ornamental lake, which gets bigger every year and is promised to occupy the whole surface on three hectares.

It is a romantic garden, consisted on the game of colors of 150 varieties of diverse plants, and the succession of the blooms from May till September of every sort, with red and blue dominants on the green of the lawn. There is no drawn path, and the walker strolls quite freely among the massifs, rocked by the rustle of the water, invited in the dream of Hesperides.

Copyright : Madeleine Lautman