The Opposite of Chelsea: The Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire
David Marsh
- Region:
- Anywhere
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Professional/academic/Hobby/Rotary/sometimes charity
- Fee:
- Paid: 100 online , more for travelling depending on distance etc
- Category:
- Hobbies
- Updated:
- 30th January 2023
- Tagged:
- Gardens | Horticulture | France | History
I’m sure that we English think of Chelsea as the ultimate garden exhibition… show gardens costing tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds, designed by big names, a society event, everything in perfect order and lasting just a week. There is no equivalent really in France but the French do have the festival at Chaumont instead. It’s whacky, often very humorous, lasts all summer, is designed on a shoestring budget often by unknown people and is designed to make you think about what gardens mean rather than about how much it all costs.
The chateau at Chaumont is now the home of the national horticultural college. It has a park laid out in the English style in the 19th century and a festival show site. There is a lot of permanent planting but every year about two dozen gardens are commissioned from designers from all round the world, as well as students from all over France. There is a strict cash limit on how much can be spent, recycling of materials is encouraged, and the concepts behind the gardens are often more important than the gardens themselves. When it goes wrong it can be a washout but when it works it is uplifting and memorable…and when was the last time you ever laughed at anything you ever saw at Chelsea?
This talk gives you an insight into the differences between Chelsea and Chaumont, and walks you through a few of the great successes and the occasional disaster [just to prove the French don’t always get in right!]. You might come away wondering what it was all about but I guarantee there will be some things you’ll love and laugh at as well!
Views: 243 | Enquiries: 1About David Marsh
I've been lecturing "live" and on-line about every aspect of the history of gardens, landscapes, as well as plant hunting /plants/botany for more than 25 years to gardens clubs, U3A groups, and to museums like the V&A & across higher education. I discovered the subject because after a career as a head teacher I took very early retirement and went back into education full time on my own account. I did a four year diploma course in Garden History which led on to an MA in Historical Research and then a PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London on The Gardens and Gardeners of Later Stuart London.
I was a trustee of The Gardens Trust, the national campaigning body for the protection and support of our historic parks, gardens and designed landscapes and chaired their education committee from 2016 until 2023. I also write a weekly blog for them which you can find at thegardenstrust.blog
I've run courses on the history of gardens [and many other things] at Birkbeck and City Lit. I'm currently an honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham and run a Masters Course in Garden History as well as offering supervision to PhD students.
If all that sounds posh - rest assured I'm not!
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by David Marsh
- The Little Men in Red Hats
- Castles for Cows & Palaces for Poultry
- What Made Your Garden Grow?
- The Joys [and Problems!] of Making a Garden in France
- The History of the London Square
- Plants on Paper: A Potted History of Botanical Art
- The National Botanic Gardens of Burma
- Humphry Repton: Britain’s First Landscape Gardener
- Tools of the Trade
- Puzzle Pictures
- The Elephant in the Garden
- The History of the Cottage Garden
- The Tradescants
- The palaces of Tudor London and their gardens...and their beasts!
- The Great Geranium Robbery
- An Introduction to Tudor and Stuart Gardens
- The Loudons
- The Picturesque
- Moorfields: The Story of London's First Public Park
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