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ARTS AND NATURE THINK TANK

FORAGING, BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND AN ART OF LIVING

15 AND 16 OCTOBER 2026


FORAGING, ANOTHER WAY OF INHABITING THE WORLD

Walking, observing, recognising, waiting… Foraging involves far more than simply picking. It calls for a knowledge of plants, of their habitats and their rhythms, and invites a renewed attention to the living world.

Ethnobotany, biology, geography, cooking and artistic creation: five figures bring their perspectives together to explore what foraging says about our relationship with nature, and to imagine more attentive ways of inhabiting the world.

LE BOIS DES CHAMBRES
41150 CHAUMONT-SUR-LOIRE
02 36 65 84 00

BOOK


FIVE VOICES ON FORAGING

From our hunter-gatherer inheritance to the contemporary uses of wild plants, from the passing on of knowledge to artistic creation, five voices explore the many ties foraging invites us to renew with the living world.

THE SPEAKERS

ÉRIC LAMBIN

Geographer, professor at the Catholic University of Louvain and at Stanford University

His talk
The lasting influence of foraging on our relationship with nature.
From the shift of hunter-gatherer societies to farming, up to the present revival of certain foraging practices, he asks what that long history has left in our relationship with nature.

Son parcours
Géographe et professeur à l’Université catholique de Louvain et à l’Université Stanford, Éric Lambin étudie les interactions entre les activités humaines et l’environnement naturel. Ses recherches ont notamment porté sur la déforestation tropicale, les politiques environnementales et, aujourd’hui, les implications territoriales de la transition énergétique. Il a également été Chief Scientific Advisor pour la Commission européenne.

MATHILDE SIMON

Doctor of plant biology, ethnobotanist and author

Her talk
Foraging as an act of cooperation and reciprocity.
Recognising plants, understanding their habitats and respecting their rhythms: she sees foraging as a sensory experience able to change the way we inhabit landscapes.

Son parcours
Docteure en biologie végétale et formée à l’ethnobotanique, Mathilde Simon est autrice et fondatrice de l’Écho sauvage, où elle transmet la reconnaissance et l’usage des plantes sauvages comestibles et médicinales. Son travail mêle vulgarisation scientifique, savoirs écologiques et attention au vivant. Elle fait également partie de l’Institut Michel Serres.

FRANÇOIS COUPLAN et KEIKO IMAMURA

Ethnobotanist and traditional Japanese chef

Their talk
What plants have to tell us.
From the history of our relationship with plants to the sansai still eaten in Japan, they show how a forager's knowledge can feed a more conscious relationship with the plant world, without setting tradition against modernity.

Leur parcours
François Couplan est ethnobotaniste, écrivain et spécialiste des usages traditionnels des plantes sauvages et cultivées, qu’il étudie depuis plusieurs décennies sur les cinq continents. Fondateur du Collège Pratique d’Ethnobotanique, il est l’auteur de plus de 125 ouvrages.

Originaire de Nagoya, Keiko Imamura est cheffe de cuisine traditionnelle japonaise et maître de cérémonie du thé. Spécialiste des sansaï, les plantes sauvages traditionnellement consommées au Japon, elle intervient aux côtés de François Couplan dans les stages et formations du Collège Pratique d’Ethnobotanique.

ANAÏS TONDEUR

Artist

Her talk
Haunting the edges.
From the Land of Fires to Chernobyl by way of the soils of Vesuvius, she devises protocols that make the traces left by plants perceptible and question less extractive ways of relating to the living world.

Son parcours
Anaïs Tondeur développe une pratique artistique tournée vers les matérialités invisibles de l’air, du climat et des environnements. À la croisée de la photographie, de l’alchimie et du soin, elle travaille en collaboration avec des chercheurs en sciences sociales et en sciences de la Terre. Son œuvre a notamment été présentée au Centre Pompidou, à la MEP et au Kröller-Müller Museum.

 THE TWO-DAY PROGRAMME

THURSDAY 15 OCTOBER

Welcome and shared lunch

14:30 — Opening by Cédric Enjalbert, deputy editor of Philosophie Magazine

Éric Lambin

Mathilde Simon

Discovering the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire

Dinner at Le Grand Chaume

FRIDAY 16 OCTOBER

10:15 — François Couplan and Keiko Imamura

Vincent Doumeizel


Round table chaired by Cédric Enjalbert


Book signing


16:30 — Closing refreshments

THE FULL BOOKLET

The texts, the guests and the detailed programme.

READ IT

TWO DAYS OF CONVERSATIONS


1 night at Le Bois des Chambres, breakfast included
4 talks and a round table
2 lunches and 1 dinner at Le Grand Chaume
A tour of the estate and its exhibitions

395 € for one person
575 € for two people in a double room

Attendance at the talks with meals included is also possible.

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CONVERSATIONS UNDER THE TREE



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THE 2026 SEASON

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