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2021 Edition All the gardens Archives
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2014 edition - Gardens of the deadly sin

14. LE TOUCHER D'OR

published at 29/09/2017

The garden gives visitors the chance to relive the experience described in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”: King Midas, who was obsessed by wealth, obtained by Dionysus the power to transform all that he touched into gold.

"Le toucher d'or", Festival des Jardins 2014 - © C. Diaz

Following a circular path that is smooth and bereft of any plant life, you draw near, admiringly, to a tree that is entirely gilded. Its leafless, lifeless golden branches spread out proudly to the sky. The tree is dead, yet it is superb and resplendent.

On either side of the path, the garden is planted with uniformly golden plants, and, depending on visitors’ individual world view, they are bedazzled by that gold and fascinated by all that wealth, or they reject that opulence, bereft of flavour and of life.

Midas realised that the gift of changing everything into gold was a calamity, for all that he touched died, depriving him of all happiness.

designers

Bertrand COLSON and Gaëlle LE BORGNE, architects
FRANCE
 

Gaëlle Le Borgne studied architecture at the Rennes Ecole d’Architecture and was awarded her DPLG diploma in 2003, after having been laureate of the "La Métamorphose du Mobilier" competition for her work "Don’t Disturb". From 2004, she has worked for several Parisian firms, including Edouard François, Manuelle Gautrand and X-TU. She continued to study and carry out emblematic projects, including two museums in France and Korea. In 2013, she co-founded the firm Colson Le Borgne, contributing her technical experience and her perspective as artistic director.

Bertrand Colson studied architecture at the École d’Architecture de Paris Val-de-Seine and received his DPLG diploma in 2003, after having worked with the firm Périphériques. In 2004, he joined the firm Manuelle Gautrand. As a project manager there, he took on many different types of projects. Social housing, luxury villas, hotel and office complexes, performance halls, museums, large scale retail spaces and towers in La Défence, etc.; 30 projects in total, through which he gained universal and multidisciplinary experience. In 2013, he co-founded the firm Colson Le Borgne, defining its main conceptual approaches.

THE GARDEN'S PLANTS

Alchemilla mollis
Allium nigrum
Anemone x hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’
Asphodeline lutea
Aundropogon gerardii
Carex albula
Digitalis laevigata
Echinacea paradoxa
Euphorbia polychroma ‘Midas’
Hemerocallis ‘Gentle Shepherd’
Heuchera ‘Caramel’
Kniphofia ‘Little Maid’
Lysimachia numularia ‘Aurea’
Oenothera stricta ‘Sulphurea’
Origanum vulgare ‘Thumbles Variety’
Pennisetum macrourum
Pennisetum villosum
Phygelius x rectus ‘Lemon Teardrops’
Salvia nemorosa ‘Schneehügel’
Santolina serratifolia
Sedum reflexum ‘Angelina’
Selinum wallichianum
Seseli gummiferum
Sesleria autumnalis
Stipa tenuifolia

GARDEN CREATED WITH SUPPORT FROM

Pépinières Minier

"Le toucher d'or", Festival des Jardins 2014 - © Colson architecture
"Le toucher d'or", Festival des Jardins 2014 - © C. Diaz
"Le toucher d'or", Festival des Jardins 2014 - © C. Diaz
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The Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire

Aquired by the Centre-Val de Loire Region in 2007, The Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire has become an unmissable site within the spheres of art and gardens. The triple identity of the Domaine : Heritage, art and gardens make for a unique visit within the circuit of the Loire Valley castles

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