We first thought it was a quirky garden centre or pottery. Behind a fence, right next to the road from Chagnon towards the town of Saintes were dozens of faces. Some of them had bodies, some of them were merely busts. We remarked to each other that we should stop by, and see if we could get any that looked like either of our fathers; they’d make a great Xmas present!
It became obvious that it wasn’t a garden centre. We never saw anyone there. The faces were just staring, day after day. The paint on the faces was faded and peeling. There is no sign on the property to indicate what it is though.
Last winter, one day all the statues were covered in heavy sheets. This was probably to protect them from the frosts and rains, but it did give them a really eerie look, like something from a horror film.
Whilst searching online for local tourist attractions, we stumbled upon The Garden of Gabriel.
A man called Gabriel Albert, a carpenter by trade, started modelling these sculptures when he retired in 1969. He kept at his hobby for about 20 years, creating about 420 statues and busts in total. Some of them were known characters – Charlie Chaplin, Francois Mitterand and General du Gaul for example.
Most were imaginary, and there were even a couple of ‘self portraits’. There are also a few animals in the collection. When Gabriel died in 2000, at the age of 95 he bequeathed the collection to his village.
We visited the museum recently. It is only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the summer season. It is run by the Nouvelle Aquitane region as it is recognised as a nationally important site of cultural heritage. For free we were able to tour the garden, see inside his workshop where the sculpting process was explained to us, and also have a peek round his house which stands central to the plot.
Its not very big, and will only take a half hour of your day to look round, but if you’re ever passing by and they’re open – do pop in.
Sadly, none of them really look like our fathers, nor are they for sale.
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