Bolero Bloom, a botanical escape by the sea. (Credit: Bolero Bloom)
There is a special place in Batroun that makes you want to breathe, dream, stay and gaze into the salty vastness. Named Bolero, it was born on a family-owned land bordering the sea, transformed with patience, creativity and affection into a cultural space. Here, the Bolero is a garden on the water, sunsets are experienced as ceremonies, flowers have a soul, cocktails tell stories of the local land, and beauty grows in every corner.
Before becoming a public place, Bolero was the private garden of the Daou house. The lawn would be overtaken each spring by a carpet of daisies, hosting for 10 years WickerPark, an independent music festival that became iconic.
But the real challenge for the owners was elsewhere: creating a permanent meeting space for lovers of simple pleasures, emerging talents, creators; an artistic and cultural laboratory open to the wind, sky and true emotions.
"This is how Bolero was born in 2019, in reference to the famous music of Maurice Ravel and in tribute to our music-loving father, Georges Daou," said Michelle Daou, a founding member of Bolero.
"We had dreamed of a Mediterranean garden on the water, teeming with plants, trees and species carefully chosen, imbued with the philosophy of wabi-sabi: the artful neglect, beauty in imperfection, balance in asymmetry," she continued. This was the setting for the first "sunset garden" designed as a destination in its own right where one can contemplate the sunset, accompanied by the region's first cocktail bar. Next, there is a distillery nestled in the greenery as well as the wonderful series of "morning serenades": days in the shade of large trees, intimate and eclectic concerts offered in the freshness of the morning, all in an atmosphere where time seems suspended.
Time for flowers
It is in this spirit and with this same consistency that the Bolero Bloom weekend will be organized. "A floral and sensory festival, poetic and participative, imagined as an ode to plants, slowness and creation," explained Michelle.
For two days, Saturday, May 24, and Sunday, May 25, this garden will transform into a playground for inventive florists, creative artisans, rare nurserymen, dreamy artists and lovers of plants and beauty.
It is a true botanical journey that touches all the senses and invites reconnection with flowers, oneself and others.
Among the highlights, an open-air vegetable cathedral of century-old cacti by botanist Dr. Sami Rifai, a live illustration performance among the trees by artist Ahmed Amer, a tasting of Carmina Gin, a drink born at Bolero, a liquid tribute to the aromas of the place, as well as a flower distillation workshop, including the ancestral Damascus rose with Nathalie Abi Khalil, magical floral installations including those by Rana Khoury and Philippe Faour, plant-based textiles by Stephanie Nehmeh, immersive workshops, an exhibition space and surprises to discover or take home.
This initiative, like all others imagined by Bolero, expresses a common vision, the same philosophy: that of culture as a way of life, nature as a partner and the public as a guest, to feel and not simply consume, the simple joys of life.
Bolero Bloom, Saturday, May 24, starting at 5 p.m. and Sunday, May 25, starting at 11 a.m.
For more information: 03-302929
Instagram: bolerobatroun
This article was translated from L'Orient-Le Jour.
