Natural Pleasures

In the elegant grounds of the chateau de Chaumont — deep in France's Loire Valley — a line of small children snakes its way past the entrance of the Garden of Inebriation at this year's International Garden Festival. Behind a beech hedge, several rows of vines are laden with bunches of stylized female breasts. Gourds with furry vaginal openings hang from the branches while suggestively shaped mushrooms sprout from the soil. Over in the corner, a spring-loaded bench shoots rigid phallic protuberances into the anatomy of any visitor unwary enough to pause upon it for a rest. Are the organizers trying...