A colossal work
The transcendence, the unacceptable, the impossible on oneself, the strength and tenacity of Jacques Garcia led to the outcome of his work. In the Bible, it is said: «in the beginning, there was Man». For Jacques Garcia, the beginning of Champ de Bataille was a thought of eternity, this is what comes out of this endless perspective, which is linked to the levels of the human knowledge.
In the beginning was the mineral with the castle and its terraces, which is followed by the vegetal with the Boxwood Lace Gardens (“Les Dentelles”), the Grove of Eden and the Grove of Erebus – Heaven and Hell. We enter the animal world with the Temple of Leda, the Dolphin’s Pond – the first settlement on Earth, the ant-hill with the insects, the Temple of Cyparis for the mammals, the Salamander for the fire, which lead to this large perspective with its twelves vegetal doors which evoke the journey of Mankind.
At the centre, on the left, mankind representation is symbolized with the Theatre, on the right mankind meditation is represented with the Hermitage. At the end of this perspective, the Steps, inaccessible with its waterfalls, its water jets and its water pyramids allow us to ascend the levels of our own conscience, with at the top of the elevation, the Grand Canal, our own reflection, which separates us from our spirit, embodied by Zephyr’s column, unfortunately unreachable.
Patrick Pottier lies within this perspective by creating successive lateral groves, the Rams’ Alley, the Squares of Diana and Apollo, the Greenhouses, the Aviaries, the Temple of Leda’s Treasure, the bowers of roses, the vine banks, the Belvedere Garden, the Theatre of Verdure and the Mogul Garden. In each place, the spirit, the quirk, the astonishment, the elegance and the vegetal knowledge intertwine for a conceptual journey.
We could have communicated figures on the thousand trees that have been planted, the thousand cubic meters of water passing from a basin to another,
the thousand cubic meters of soil that have been moved, the only figure we will specify is the figure of the impossible: you can try to guess the amount.
The inhabited house and the outbuildings have 80 meters of development each. They are two admirable buildings of similar appearance made of bricks and rocks with a slate roof. The style is classical with perfect lines. The play of colours and volumes make it a unique set.