The Domaine de Courances is open every weekend and public holidays from 14:00 to 18:00 from 3 April to 1 November 2021. The castle is closed for visits in July and August, while the park, labelled "Remarkable Garden" remains open. Come and enjoy this unique place in spring, summer, and fall.
The "Jardins de Courances" produce fruit and vegetables, which are freshly picked and offered for sale from spring, and supply stores (Terroirs d'avenir) and Parisian restaurateurs (Alléno).
Courances: moving towards agro-culture
The garden is where everything starts in terms of cooking. It is here that Courances intends to continue the effort that started a few years ago: at the heart of this approach is the search for a new "agro-cultural" model that is healthy, sensitive, and sensible.
In the coming months, with the help of the cooks through banquets, the Jardins de Courances had the ambition of nourishing a reflection on the food and agricultural practices of today.
A simple picnic, hunting meal, will be the opportunity to share this thirst for understanding with you and the cooks, as well as this desire to see a hedonistic and virtuous circle emerge.
A Louis XIII castle that is still inhabited
After being abandoned during the 19th century, it was completely restored in 1872 by Baron Samuel de Haber, a wealthy Swiss banker in search of a large house. Baron Samuel de Haber took the opportunity to add important elements, including the famous horseshoe staircase, copied on the castle of Fontainebleau, and red bricks on its facades, which were typical of the Louis XIII era but non-existent until at the end of the 19th century. It is said that the castle of Courances is twice that of Louis XIII! Today, the castle is still private, and it houses four generations of Ganay.
The Gardens of Courances
Very long presented as a work of Le Nôtre, the Courances Park is over a century old. The park is first and foremost a Renaissance style water garden that succeeded the medieval walled garden, and pre-dates the classical park.
Thanks to the work of Antoine Berthelin, one of the initiators of the success of the Rosendal gardens in Stockholm, Sweden, a multitude of fruits, vegetables and flowers are now flourishing in Courances. Visitors can also enjoy them!
Agroecology and organic farming
The owners are 10 cousins who chose to try a new type of agriculture, from conventional agriculture and agroecology to organic farming. Gradually, they were no longer plowing, leaving no bare soil, planting under the name of conservation agriculture in order to restore the life of the soil. In winter 2014-2015, the largest agroforestry project (70 hectares) in Ile-de-France was be set up for the same purpose: to restore life in the soil.
