Video. 2,000 candles, seven gardeners and dustpans: behind the scenes of the candlelit evenings in the Marqueyssac gardens

Candlelit evenings at the Marqueyssac gardens have become a must-see event in the Dordogne Valley. Every Thursday during the summer, the site's gardeners are busy lighting and monitoring the nearly 2,000 candles.

The sun, insolent in its heat and light, surely does not think that it will be replaced, a few hours later, by simple little glass jars filled with white wax. Yet, it is indeed under its crushing 36°C that the team at the Marqueyssac gardens , in Vézac (Dordogne), has been busy since the early afternoon of this Thursday in July, in order to put everything in place for the evening. Dressed in their green flocked t-shirts, we see the employees struggling, backs bent, knees bent, counting each of their steps and placing one by one the candles that are the pride and joy of candlelit evenings.

This Thursday, like every Thursday in July and August for the past twenty-five years, Marqueyssac, an emblematic site of the Dordogne Valley and the Périgord Noir, ranked among the 25 most beautiful gardens in the world by the "New York Times", opens its doors to the public for an evening event.

Until midnight, visitors can stroll along the six-kilometer promenade, lined with 150,000 hand-pruned boxwoods and other local trees. They'll also be lit by candles: nearly 2,000, the same number of people expected.

For the gardeners, it's time to hurry. The day begins at 2:30 p.m., with the placement of the first verrines. At 6:30 p.m., they're still there, arranging them one by one along the paths, whether straight and wide or winding and narrow. On the esplanade, a 500-meter straight line, they're found taking long strides. "Everything is measured to the millimeter," explains Christophe Kurzac, head of the gardening team, who has been in Marqueyssac since 2019. "As the esplanade is quite wide, we place one every five meters, but in narrower areas, like the Bastion, we tend to place one per meter." » With Mathias, the apprentice pushing a handcart filled with crates of candles, the thirty-year-old delicately places them along a taut wire on one side of the path, while one of his colleagues does the same, right opposite, on the other side.

Despite the still-blue sky, candles are beginning to be lit using long lighters. "This way, we show visitors that the evening has truly begun. They'll be able to enjoy the various musical entertainment scattered throughout the park," explains Jean Lemoussu, Marqueyssac's head gardener. In fact, his favorite moment of the evening is just around the corner. "Between dusk and wolf, the candles are starting to do their job. But it's still a little light, it's becoming magnificent. It only lasts about ten minutes."

Around 8 p.m., the last wicks are lit. But the work isn't over. Throughout the evening, the seven seasonal and full-time workers watch over the candles like milk on the stove. "We never stop turning, relighting a candle, making sure a visitor doesn't accidentally hit one of them. The wind [with some naughty children deciding to blow out all the flames] is our worst enemy, especially around the castle," explains Christophe Kurzac. It's a somewhat strenuous job, considering they all take between "20,000 and 25,000 steps" during the day.

Everyone has their own little technique to save a little energy. "When I see that one has a weak wick, I take another one and pour a little wax on it, it allows me to change them less and avoid going back and forth," adds Hector, 19, on the lookout for any imperfections on the light path. This art student in Paris, who is doing his first season at Marqueyssac, is not keeping an eye on the least interesting part of the site – if there is one, in fact – since he is positioned at the Bastion, the labyrinthine center of these rounded shrubs. "It's nice to work here. In a way, we are also visiting our heritage, especially with such a view of the Dordogne valley..." he says, letting his gaze wander into the distance, as far as the Château de Castelnaud, also illuminated.

With the use of real candles, accidents are possible. Also, to limit the risks, the candles are not placed directly under the boxwood, but next to them. A fire extinguisher is available every 50 meters, and watering hoses are never far away. "During the heatwave of 2023, we didn't close, but our vigilance was heightened. We had to call in more people; there were about twenty of us monitoring the site." Pragmatism dictates that the driest parts of the circuit are devoid of candles, replaced by more than a hundred light fixtures.

Shortly before midnight, while the last visitors tried to play extra time, the dismantling of the installations began. Armed with a simple dustpan, the team briskly fanned the candles. "It's impossible to blow out all the candles. For now, it's the simplest technique we've found," says the team leader.

For the gardeners, the evening will end around 1:30 a.m., exhausted. A second team will arrive the next morning to clean up the wax that has dripped onto the stony paths. "For us, a day with a candlelit evening is more like two days of work," smiles Christophe Kurzac.

"Yes, it's a bit tiring," confesses Clémence, who has been working full-time on the site for two years. "But I prefer being here, outdoors, than behind a desk, especially in this incredible place. There are worse things, right?"