Le jardin extraordinaire, Lieurac

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We just had to go to Lieurac, a small village only a few kilometres from home, sometime this weekend. So many people had told us not to miss this one weekend in the year when Le Jardin Extraordinaire welcomes everyone to enjoy its plants, its sculptures, its events, scheduled and unscheduled, and its atmosphere, which combined joyfulness and peace in an event we found at once exciting and restorative. It's a community arts venture which strongly believes that we all have artistic talent, and encourages anybody and everybody who wants to, to get involved. I've already signed on the dotted line for next year......

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Photos

..and then spend some time exploring the garden...
Full of surprises, places to explore, sculpture to examine

An extraordinary pumpkin in an extraordinary garden
This one's called Yugoslav fingers, apparently

Looking back down the hillside...
...just before we entered the woods

so many insects, made from miles and miles of sellotape and clingfilm, we think..
..but this spider particularly caught our eye

It all starts to get a bit allegorical.
Musings on death, decay, the worlds beyond.....

Then out of the woods...
..and into fresh sunny meadows, before visiting....

The river
No longer a simple stream, there were paths, dams, sculptures formed by sensitively balanced rocks, pools of flower heads. Magic.

These rocks are both masters of extraordinary balance...
...as well as suggesting something even more interesting, more human

And what's this?
Standing listening to the river coursing over stones and gravel while contemplating the scene was a fine way to spend some quiet moments

Looking down again at the river..
...this time at the pools of flowers

....before pausing to listen to this ethereal musician
...playing and singing as her companion sang and slowly, sinuously danced, echoing the rhythms of the river