With its heritage, artistic and gardening approach, the Arts and Nature Center of Chaumont-sur-Loire is a unique place offering a great experience to visitors in search of discovery and disconnection. Located in the heart of landscapes listed as World Heritage by UNESCO, this historic place of the Loire Valley is today an open-air laboratory bringing together nature and culture through multiple animations.
Consisting of a Castle (with stables and outbuildings) and a 32-hectare park, the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire served as the home of Marie de Médicis, Diane de Poitiers and Madame de Staël, 3 women whose contribution to the arts is continued today through a number of activities based on contemporary creation and nature. Each year in spring, the Art season and the International Garden Festival are held, and in autumn and winter, photography is honored with the Chaumont-Photo-sur-Loire exhibitions.
Installations, artistic interventions, conferences, meetings... This cultural center, located in a magnificent environment, attracts some 500,000 visitors a year with a multidisciplinary and multi-sensory program that has been exploring the links between the greatest of creators - nature - and art since 2008.
Open 363 days a year, the site is in perpetual metamorphosis thanks to the International Garden Festival, which invites landscape gardeners and designers from all over the world to propose projects combining creation, poetry and nature. At the end of the competition, experimental gardens are set up which, together with the "Green Cards" given to guests, completely renew the visit of the Domaine.
In 2021, the theme of this laboratory of contemporary garden creation was "Biomimicry in the garden : nature, an infinite source of inspiration" and attracted a variety of audiences : French and foreigners, experts and amateurs, young and old, all gathered in this site with many other attractions.
In 2023, it is the theme of resilience that guides the designers' work, as their creation must both take into account ecological constraints and reinforce the presence of plants in their plot.
With 3 stars in the Michelin Green Guide to the Loire Valley Castles, 6 restaurants and several labels (including the "Remarkable Trees" label for its cedars in the Historical Park), there are plenty of reasons to come to the Domaine!
Our recommendation: use the "Loire by Bike" route (labeled "Quality Tourism") to gently appreciate the beauties of this region and this site of which it is one of the jewels. To start your trip, discover them through this beautiful video.
Valérie from Comme des Français.
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Discover our other articles on this same theme
. Contemporary art in the vineyards
. The Loire by bike circuit
. Discovering the history of gardens
Photo credits: 1. Le jardin de la fontaine Anémone de Jean-Philippe Poiree-ville_©Eric Sander / 2. L'arbre source_©C. Diaz / 3. Mosaïque mimétique_©Eric Sander / 4. Le jardin zèbre_©C. Diaz