In the small French village of Gaujacq, Chanel works with growers and chemists to harness the power of the camellia flower.
Many of the most beautiful things in life are the result of being in exactly the right spot — a perfect alignment of external factors. The same can be said of Chanel’s open-sky laboratory in the small town of Gaujacq in southwest France, about an hour from Biarritz (the surfing capital of Europe and where Gabrielle Chanel opened her very first couture house in 1915). The over-40-hectare camellia farm and research laboratory is 54 kilometres from the ocean and 56 kilometres from mountains. “This makes it a unique climate,” says Jean Thoby, an internationally renowned camellia expert and our tour guide as we roam the rolling hills of Gaujacq. “The winds are almost non-existent, the land is deep and the springs are abundant.” The hot and humid weather (Gaujacq sees about 150 centimetres of rain each year, spread over the four seasons) is ideal for camellias because it’s similar to the flowers’ native growing grounds in Japan and China, where they thrive. “We don’t even have to water the plants because of the humidity,” says Thoby.
Thoby was born into the world of plants — his parents owned a nursery in Nantes, and he is a fifth-generation plant collector. But his passion for plants still feels fresh and new. (“Did you know that the direction in which tree branches grow depends on the position of the planets?” he asks excitedly as we wander through the fairy-tale-like garden of blooms.) In 1998, Thoby accepted an offer to partner with Chanel to study his impressive camellia collection. (Camellias were Gabrielle’s favourite flower, after all.) His father once declined a similar offer from Chanel, but Thoby agreed to invite the brand in, eager to learn more about his beloved camellias. “A recent study revealed that only 3 per cent of…
Read the full article here
