In front of the Château de Villarceaux, the apple-green vertugadin stretches down a 530-metre-long slope to the vast main pond. This old-fashioned French word comes from the Spanish ‘vertugo’, which means a thin wooden stick. During the Renaissance, the vertugadin sparked the fashion for bell-shaped dresses. The wooden hoop frame, fixed around the hips of elegant women, widened the skirts in an impressive way. By analogy, in the 18th century, the vertugadin designated gardens in espalier, where embankments and stone stairs would alternate. The one at Villarceaux, in the French Vexin, is one of the very few such well-preserved examples.