France, Loire Valley - Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire VIII (The Valley of the Mists)

The Valley of the Mists (Le Vallon des Brumes) offers a special landscape, 

with luxuriant and humid vegetation that one discovers crossing a small wood bridge and descending a narrow path, 
such as Indiana Jones. 

This is a small ravine with steep slippery steps to the bottom, where mist is blown in clouds every minute or so. 

The sprinklers release misty water for a few seconds, then the light plays between the suspended droplets and the lush foliage.

The Valley of the Mists is an amazing sensory experience, where one can walk down into a mysterious mist filled valley, 

with the very fine mist being pulverized into air, steam jets constantly raising a foggy cloud, 

ferns and rays of sunlight piercing the thick mist create a particularly refreshing and unique decor.

France, Loire Valley - Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire VII (The Estate)

The Prince and Princess de Broglie, the last private owners of the castle, 

introduced an extraordinary sense of modernity, fantasy and high society to the estate.

In 1875, Marie-Charlotte de Broglie and her husband, Henri-Amédée de Broglie, gained ownership of the château. 

The architect Paul-Ernest Sanson was hired for the complete restoration of the château, 

while the architect Marcel Boille was responsible for building the estate's model farm.

Unfortunately, a turn of fortune forced the de Broglie family to sell Chaumont to the state in 1938. 

It was then registered as a historical monument.

If You Walk by the Colour Purple in a Field Somewhere

"He told her the flowers in her painting contained exactly the purple substance of the flowers on the desk in front of her. (...) 

Let us open the window and see if your painting can entice the butterflies."

Sarah Hall

France, Loire Valley - Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire VI (The Gardens)

Chateau de Chaumont is also now known for its summertime garden festival, 

one of the more popular gardens featuring each year a selection of modern garden installations.

The International Garden Festival has been providing a unique panorama of landscape design all over the world since 1992. 

At the same time a source of ideas and a nursery for talent, 

the Festival gives an extra boost to the art of gardens and gains the interest of both the public and those in the trade 

by displaying new flower arrangements, new materials, new ideas and new approaches.

The diversity and the high quality of the projects have contributed to the Festival’s international reputation, 

which has become an indisputable meeting place 

for displaying the work of a new generation of landscape gardeners, architects, designers or gardeners.