T he Garden of Eden does exist! Instead of being in heavenly spheres, it is in the Canadian region of Charlevoix, covers 81,000 square meters and bears the name "Les Quatre Vents". The thriving life's work of passionate gardener and native New Yorker Francis Cabot. When the documentary filmmaker Sébastien Chabot walked through the idyllic area for the first time in 2007, he was so captivated by its beauty that he promptly decided to erect a cinematic monument to its extraordinary creator.
Unfortunately, when Chabot started work in 2009, the then 84-year-old master gardener was already so seriously ill that he could not personally lead the team and died two years later. The man behind Les Quatre Vents is nevertheless always present in Chabot's film, the viewer hears his voice from the off while the camera captures the breathtaking facets of his living creation: the Japanese corner with moon bridge and pavilion, the dragonfly lake, the classic English one Garden... Over four years, Chabot returned again and again to what is perhaps the most beautiful garden in the world, to capture the perfect light and the different flowering seasons.
His film "The Gardener" is a tribute to nature and a posthumous homage to an extraordinary personality whose path through life was as winding as a hedge maze. Cabot's family belonged to the US moneyed aristocracy and after his studies at Harvard University he also became a financier. However, his passion has always been plants and flowers. In addition to his dedicated work on Les Quatres Vents, a property he inherited, Cabot founded the Garden Conservatory charity, which rescues neglected gardens across the United States from the bulldozer and helps them thrive again. Particularly spectacular: the meadows and beds of Alcatraz.
So if you are still looking for inspiration for your own garden or balcony projects, we warmly recommend this film!
