Exploring Château Marouatte: Secrets Beside the Pond

 Exploring Château Marouatte: Secrets Beside the Pond

Part 9

The little pond had already caught my attention, but once I walked closer, I realized that it was full of details I had completely missed from across the lawn.

And, as seems to happen everywhere at Marouatte, looking closely at one thing led me straight to another mystery.

Photo 1

At first I was interested in the planting around the pond and the old stone wall beyond it. The garden here has a wonderfully informal quality. Tall iris leaves rise beside silvery foliage, purple flower spikes and clouds of tiny white blossoms. Terracotta pots soften all that ancient gray stone.

Then I began noticing the inhabitants.

There was a brightly colored kingfisher ornament perched on a slender metal stem, looking surprisingly convincing from a distance. In the foreground, another whimsical garden decoration appeared among the pots.

These little pieces of garden art are scattered so casually that you almost have to discover them one at a time.

Photo 2

Then there was the bee.

Or, more accurately, a wonderfully oversized metal garden bee dangling from a curved iron shepherd’s hook.

It was exactly the kind of quirky detail I have come to expect here. Nothing about this garden feels overly designed or precious. Someone has clearly had fun with it.

Medieval walls and garden bees apparently coexist quite happily at Marouatte.

Photo 3

Looking beyond the ornaments, I began paying more attention to the wall itself.

There was an opening between two substantial sections of masonry, now completely filled with vegetation. Ivy pours down through the gap and almost disguises what appears to have once been a passage.

The official history of Marouatte describes the château as having two polygonal enclosures separated by a moat, with access between them historically made by a drawbridge. 

That makes these odd openings particularly interesting. The château was not originally a collection of isolated buildings surrounded by gardens. Movement through the fortified complex was controlled by walls, passages, gates and changes in level.

Today, nature has softened almost all of that.

Photos 4 and 5

I turned my attention back toward the château.

The stone is fascinating when viewed this closely. It isn’t a perfectly uniform wall. Different sizes and shapes of stone, patches of mortar, lichen, moss and later repairs create a kind of architectural patchwork.

That makes sense here because Marouatte has undergone considerable change. The château was partly dismantled during the French Revolution and actually used as a quarry. In the late nineteenth century it was restored by the architect Dannery, who also added architectural elements of his own. 

So I have learned not to assume that every opening, blocked doorway or unusual piece of masonry I see belongs to one particular period.

There are layers here.

Photo 5

Back at the pond, I spotted another little character.

An owl.

The metal owl sits right on the edge of the old stone basin, its body made from overlapping pieces of metal that resemble feathers.

He looked rather serious about his assignment.

Between the owl, kingfisher, bee and butterflies, this corner of the château seems to have acquired its own permanent population of garden creatures.

Photo 6

Looking even more closely at the pond, I could see how it was being maintained.

A small solar-powered pump keeps the water moving. It is a wonderfully simple solution for a little garden pond because it doesn’t require running electrical wiring across the lawn.

And the movement is useful for more than appearance. Circulating or bubbling water helps improve oxygenation, particularly during warm weather. The Royal Horticultural Society specifically notes that solar-powered fountains are readily available for this purpose and that keeping pond water oxygenated benefits pond life. 

So this charming old stone basin isn’t simply sitting full of stagnant water. There is a small bit of modern technology quietly working among the plants.

Ancient stone. Solar power.

Once again, Marouatte manages to put centuries next to each other without making a fuss about it.

Photo 7

Then I looked to my right.

Behind one of the large clipped bushes was something I had not noticed before.

An archway.

Only part of it is visible. The shrub conceals much of the opening, making it difficult to tell exactly where the passage leads.

Of course, that immediately made me want to know.

By this point in my exploration, I had learned an important lesson about Château Marouatte.

If there is an unexplained archway, I am going to investigate it.

And there was something else nearby that was even more intriguing.

A blocked entranceway appeared to provide access down toward the moat.

Earlier in my exploration I had photographed that moat from above, densely green now but once an important part of the château’s defensive arrangement. Historical descriptions of Marouatte specifically mention the two terraces being separated by a moat and the inner enclosure being reached by a drawbridge. 

Suddenly the peaceful little garden around me looked different.

The pond, benches, potted plants and whimsical metal birds belong to the château as it is lived in today.

But just behind the bushes are clues to another Marouatte.

Passages.

Walls.

A moat.

Entrances that no longer function as entrances.

And an archway disappearing somewhere behind the greenery.

I had started this part of my walk by leaning over a little pond to see how its solar pump worked.

I ended it staring at a dark opening behind a bush.

At Château Marouatte, apparently, that is how these things happen.

And yes, I was going to see where that archway went.