Cabanes de Jardin at the Bagatelle

An exhibit of 24 garden "sheds" leads you to explore, fantasize, dream...

07/22/2004
Cabanes de Jardin at the Bagatelle

I find that there simply is no exact English translation for the French cabane. "Cabin" has a different connotation in English. "Garden shed"--with its overtones of dusty storage--just doesn't do justice to the esprit of the French cabane, which is part get-away, part nature-hideout, part playhouse--but especially a place with a sense of secrecy and even magic, a place to fantasize and dream.

In this year's exhibit at the Bagatelle Garden in Paris, the cabane is the star. (Remember the Bagatelle 'liberation' of garden dwarves two years ago?) Scattered all over the garden are 24 diverse and creative examples of garden cabanes, ranging from artistic and intellectual, to humorous, to traditional, to fantastical.

The best place to begin your visit is in the Trianon, where a collection of fabulous engravings by François Houtin perfectly sets the tone for a meditation on the cabane. Through his intricate India ink engravings, you embark on a voyage into a magical realm of Victorianesque trees entwined into fantastic shelters. At once landscape architect, artist, designer, gardener, and engraver, Houtin synthesizes all his skills in these complex and even ornate natural structures.

(I wish I could show you his marvelous engravings, but I don't use images without permission. Instead, below right, is a cabane secrète, with an organic form made out of moss and branches. Unfortunately Houtin's fantastical structures exist on paper only.)

The exhibit does a good job of leading you to reflect on the roles the garden cabane plays with respect to the human spirit. Rooms are dedicated to "refinding oneself," shelter, the desire to build, the desire to escape, to dream, and to tell a story. In the room on building, there are superb photos of old woodcutter's, fishermen's, and vintner's cabanes as well as a shepherd's roulotte, a sort of cabane on wheels meant to be pulled by goats, that served as a shelter on wheels for the shepherd as he migrated with his herd through the summer. These sorts of structures still stand throughout much of France, and are sometimes still in use.

In the photo at left, you see a caloge, another of the cabanes in the exhibit. This cabin made of an overturned boat is a traditional structure for seaside shelter in the part of upper Normandie where we have a house. In this playful variation, fishing nets serve as curtains and realistically, there is a basket of scallop shells outside the door (scallop fishing is major in Normandie). The path is made of galets--smooth, flattened stones characteristic of the Normandie shores.

Several artist's fantasies are among the cabanes in the Bagatelle. One of the most enchanting is the gariotte glacée (right), a sort of fairy igloo of icy, irregular chunks of glass, hung on the interior with strands of crystalline icicles. The incongruity of this structure of "ice" amid the green lawns and roses of the Bagatelle lend it an air of true magic.

The cabane de passage (left) is another artist's concept, this time as the garden cabane as a vehicle of passage from an exterior, public existence into one's private world. The airy structure of wood laths, painted in improbable aqua and pink, is angled so that you can't see behind you as you pass through it, nor in front of you (I leave you to construct the symbolism). And it appears so light and fragile that you have the impression only the guy ropes hold it down to earth.

In the cabane des voiles (right), you feel sheltered by its veils, yet one can see out and feel the wind and other environmental elements impinging on your consciousness. Unlike in a house, you are not entirely cut off from the world around you. You can feel sunlight on your skin and the puff of a breeze on your face--but everything is softened by the light protection of your cabane. Meanwhile, your imagination is free to sail away.

Of course, no exhibit of this nature would be complete without cabanes to pique the curiosity, joy, and imagination of children. Naturally, there is the predictable house of the three little pigs. A bit more imaginative is the cabane of "missing pots" (left), a fairy-tale house built of clay flower pots, inhabited by a friendly pot-personnage, which delights with its concept of "stolen" materials--much as a child might snitch a sheet from the linen closet to make a "tent."

As any reader of fairy tales knows, these classic tales of childhood are rarely without a quiver of scariness or evil, which invariably is vanquished in the end by virtue and goodness. The thrill of being just a little bit scared is not missing from the exhibit of cabanes. There's a witch's house (above right), built of sticks, hung with long shreds of Spanish moss, and with a very witchy twig broomstick propped up outside. Inside gleams a giant orange pumpkin and, a bit hidden in the murk, a black witch who is all the scarier for the lack of features on her face.

And, oh! Look up there! High in the branches of a tree is strung a giant spider web--a veritable cabane d'araignée. The spider who spun it must be big enough to capture a small child and...let's not consider the gory possibilities. Let's just cringe a little as we look up, hoping the giant creature doesn't drop down on our backs, sink paralyzing fangs into us, and haul us up to its lair for a leisurely lunch.

Returning from the land of imagination to the quotidien world of the gardener, the classic cabane du jardinier (right) is a study in pleasant airiness. Modeled on the Wardian case, a special carrying box of wood and glass used by plant explorers in the 19th century to bring home their living treasures from distant shores, the gardener's shed has glass roof panels that open like the lid of such a box. The interior is not only light and airy, but has the at once inside/outside feel that is intrinsic to the spirit of a true cabane.

Through the chickenwire of the windows, you can peer in and see what the gardener has left behind. In fact, it looks as if he just stepped out for a moment (photo left). Through another window you can see a Pelouse interdite (keep off the grass) sign. Hmmm, this must be a gardener who works for the park! But this is self-mocking, as in fact--unlike in many Paris parks--you are free to roam across the grass as much as you want in the Bagatelle.

While this cabane de jardinier is recognizably what we would call a garden shed, I was sorry that the exhibit didn't include a cabane inspired by those found all over France in community gardens (jardins d'ouvriers). Don't ever miss the opportunity to walk through one of these community gardens, for they are full of the most charming cabanes imaginable, which serve not only as garden sheds, but as places to rest, meditate, socialize, and of course prendre un verre (take a glass) with a neighboring gardener.

As I walked through this exhibit of cabanes, I was stimulated to imagine what I would create if invited to contribute. Perhaps a brightly painted gypsy roulotte (wagon), with lace curtains at the window and a homey stovepipe poking out. Or, how about a cabane de herisson (hedgehog cabin)? In my mind's eye, a cloud bubble appears containing a cozy, mostly underground space, where a hedgehog family stores nuts, fruits, and bugs filched from my garden for the winter months.

As I wandered through the park, I was reminded of how, as a child during the summer months, I was always off in the woods building "hideouts" out of branches, stones, and rocks, where I would cook over a woodfire and fantasize about being an Indian. Certainly the exhibit of cabanes had worked its magic on me, putting me back in touch with that long-forgotten magic of the secret, outdoor shelter where I could hide my treasures and do as I pleased, at once protected from and yet part of the wilds around me. It was a such a delicious feeling that no one--not even ducks and turtles--should be without it!

Cabanes--Exposition et Promenade, 8 June-10 October, 2004, Parc de Bagatelle, route de Sèvres à Neuilly, Bois de Boulogne, 75016 Paris. Métro Pont de Niuilly then bus 43 (stop 'Place de Bagatelle) or Métro Porte Maillot, then bus 244 (stop Bagatelle-Pré Catalan). Entrance fee 3 €.

Francois Houtin, engravings at Sagot-Le Garrec, 10, rue de Buci, 75006 Paris, tel. +33 (0)1 43 26 43 38; email sagot-legarrec@wanadoo.fr

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