The International Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire
opened for business on Friday. The festival is an opportunity to view contemporary
designs of gardens set to a different theme each year – this year’s theme is the
’7 deadly sins’ so there is no reason to suggest it will be any less
interesting than previous years.
The designers will no doubt have fun attempting to show us
how these ‘sins’ can be expressed in a garden design. Surely whoever has won
the right to the sin of ‘Pride’- ‘excessive belief in one's own abilities’ - will have a
lot to live up to.
‘Envy’- ‘the desire for others' traits, status, abilities,
or situation’ – may be a garden that features Chameleons.
‘Gluttony’- ‘an inordinate desire to consume more than that
which one require’ will no doubt see the designer spilling his garden over on
to the area of other ‘sins’.
‘Lust’ – ‘an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body’
already has me interested.
‘Anger’ – ‘manifested in the individual who spurns
love and opts instead for fury’. Also known as Wrath, could be messy.
‘Greed’ – ‘the desire for material wealth or gain,
ignoring the realm of the spiritual’. Also called Avarice or Covetousness might
easily be represented by the excesses of Chambord
but then the space is limited.
‘Sloth’ – ‘the avoidance of physical or spiritual work’ has
already been done, in the 'Body and soul' festival of 2010 so it will be interesting to see a new ‘take’ on it!
Then again they may be nothing like this but this is the
great thing about the garden festival…go visit.
Entrance ticket : 12,00 €
Children between 12 and 18 : 7,50 €
Children between 6 and 11 : 5,00 €
Free entrance for under 6’s
