SON ET LUMIÈRE

Style, subtlety and environmental sensitivity were the hallmarks of a music and light show that enchanted night visitors to the 30th edition of the International Garden Festival at the Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire in the Loire Valley

WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS: Andrea Jones

If you have never visited the International Garden Festival held at the Domain of Chaumont-surLoire, then I recommend you plan a trip and prepare to be inspired.

The château of Chaumont, in its original form, dates back to 1000, but its current incarnation was built in the late-15th to early-16th centuries and was recently listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. If its romantic architecture is not enough to move you, the art exhibitions of varying genres and installations that fill each floor and every possible surrounding outbuilding will surely set your creative juices flowing.

Outside, the gardens are lined with stylish herbaceous borders designed by the festival’s director, Chantal Colleu-Dumond, and the surrounding parkland is peppered with notable contemporary sculptures by artists of international repute.

The annual International Garden Festival, founded in 1992, is the icing on this beautiful Loire Valley cake. Devised as ‘a laboratory for contemporary garden and landscape design worldwide’, the organisers’ brief is to present a show that is diverse and of the highest quality, as ‘a source of ideas and a nursery for talent’.

The formula is simple: every year, 30 garden designers of international standing are each invited to present a show garden within the park, with designs that represent their response to a theme set by the organisers. In 2022, to mark the festival’s 30th anniversary, the theme was ‘The Ideal Garden’.

As the festival runs for six months, between April and November, the gardens must be built so they hold up in all weathers from spring to autumn.

Also, since 2012, a 24-acre area of the park called Les Prés du Goualoup has been used to feature sustainable show gardens. These have been included by special invitation or have been carefully selected from previous years’ temporary exhibits and given permanent space and status.

In recent years, some of the competition gardens have been enhanced by summer evening shows of son et lumière, giving a new dimension to the theatrics of the festival.

The 15 to 18 chosen gardens are selected for their aesthetic criteria and with safety and accessibility in mind, and the displays are designed with style, subtlety and environmental sensitivity. Each is, says Chantal, ‘a work of art in itself that has been created from another work of art.

‘With infinite gentleness, the gardens are transformed to take on astonishing colours and amaze the gaze with subtle reflections or moving shadows,’ she continues. ‘Spectators let themselves be carried away to new atmospheres, unusual, magical, mysterious.’

With sustainability and concern for the environment in mind, designers are using more solarpowered LED lighting, which consumes less energy and gives off negligible heat, thus limiting the damage to garden plants.

Also, the solar batteries are smaller, which means lighter equipment and simpler installation requirements, resulting in fewer trenches being dug to bring light into the heart of each garden.

The economical light-emitting diodes are also used to cast a changing display on the face of the château and the stunning overall effect has won professional plaudits with it receiving first prize, in 2020, from SERCE (the union of electrical and climatic engineering companies), which runs an annual lumières competition.

Sweet Tunes

The tone of the 30th anniversary event was set by Chantal, who selected a soundtrack of orchestral film music so the guests could ‘make their own cinema’ as they wandered around the gardens.

My own night-time visit began with an introduction to the scene by one of the small army of young, polite, well-scripted guides. Then, as the orchestra began to play, its sound diffused from four points, and the scent of the plants and nature’s own soundtrack of frogs and insects began to fill the warm evening air, we were led to the first garden to witness

Festival Technology

Putting on the Festival’s light show is a team effort, with work shared between director Chantal ColleuDumond, lighting designer Philippe Berthomé (who is perhaps better known for his work in theatres and opera houses around the world. He also created the atmospheric lighting for Chaumont’s new on-site hotel, Le Bois des Chambres, and its restaurant, Le Grand Chaume), the suppliers, the technicians and, of course, the garden designers.

The number of lights in each garden varies but ranges from as many as 70 in some cases to as few as a dozen in others and with 65W of power per metre for the most inefficient, and as little as 2W for the smaller installations. A mixture of colour and natural (warm and cold white) bulbs are used, with filters introduced where a more precise effect is required.

Lessons have been learnt along the way. Some of the early lighting effects were far too complex and abrupt colour changes were not a great success. Having several lights connected to a programmed digital multiplex (a type of equaliser for lighting) also caused problems because, whenever there was a power cut, the system had to be connected to a PC-based back-up before the lights could be rebooted and that PC was often unavailable at short notice.

Embracing new technology, which is often more affordable and reliable, the festival team now has different power options and keeps the lighting effects as simple as possible.

Although some trenches are still necessary, they are mostly used for the sound system wiring, which has been designed to reach all parts of the festival estate and is based on a professional concert and PA system made by Rondson. It consists of pre-amps, amplifiers and professional, directional, outdoor speaker units – of which there are 20 in total.

In the beginning, individual playlists were created for each garden, but even with the volume scrupulously controlled, the overall effect was always a cacophony. Today, a single playlist is broadcast across the grounds, to create a general ambience as visitors enjoy the evening show.

its transformation from daytime space to night – a world of subtle reflections and moving shadows.

In Le Banquet, a garden by Camille Chevrier, Florian Dominicy and Pauline Dominicy, its long ribbon of tables was lit by footlights and the dishes on each top were sprinkled with luminous stars. An olive tree appeared sculpted by a few points of light.

As we continued our stroll, I glimpsed through the door of Le Jardin Idéal, designed by Jacqueline Osty. Peering beneath the lantern, I saw the crescent moon rising above it and reflected in the narrow black strip of the blue-edged raised pool. Agaves in the border were also tinged with blue.

In the middle of the festival square, we admired the towers of the castle. The movement of the light holds the audience, enraptured.

The enchantment continued: Le Cocon Végétal and its emerging birches, and upwards to the clouds of Inch Lim’s Living Batik, which appear to be floating away into the night.

The 2022 festival closed just a few weeks ago, but the event team is keen to receive new design entries for 2024. Chantal wants to grow the number of international, recognised designers taking part, and to encourage new talent into the theatre that is Chaumont-sur-Loire.

Any members of the Society of Garden Designers who are interested in applying should note that the next deadline is the last Friday in October 2023.

Email Elizabeth Mettling, elizabeth. mettling@domaine-chaumont.fr; domaine-chaumont.fr

Adolfo has used shapely colouredstemmed Golden Chinese bamboo in groups, combined with York stone, to lead eyes and feet through the open space, while Trachelospermum jasminoides covers the upright RSJs and monkey-bar pergola and creates a sense of enclosure.