The Loire & Beyond

In this issue

1. 01From the houseThe editor’s letter, and how to read this issuePage 3
2. 02A garden made of waterPhotographic spread · ChenonceauPage 4
3. 03The Loire, read slowlyCover story · the valley in four materialsPage 6
4. 04A garden that continues the architectureVillandry, as one protected ensemblePage 8
5. 05The valley, in the registerGazetteer · twelve Loire recordsPage 10
6. 06Tuffeau, granite, brickCraftsmanship · how the materials agePage 11
7. 07Reading a roof, reading a noticeConservation · what you can and cannot seePage 14
8. 08The timber palaces of the NorthNorway · wood, paint and winterPage 16
9. 09Fortress, city, fjordNorway · the defended coastPage 18
10. 10Gardens at the edge of the possibleNorway · botanical collections in the northPage 20
11. 11Where the garden came firstItaly · villa, orto botanico, excavationPage 21
12. 12Two Grand ToursTravel · the Loire, and the Slovenian borderlandsPage 23

The first printed issue of Le Journal runs west along the Loire and then leaves it: a country of painted timber palaces that have survived three centuries of Atlantic weather, a coast of fortresses that were mostly never attacked, botanical collections maintained near the Arctic Circle, and an Italy where the garden is frequently older than the villa standing in it. Every piece began as a record in the house's own database. Where a source says something, we say it and name the source; where the source is silent, we say that too.