About Jardin de givre

“My windowpane is a garden of frost”

Nelligan wrote this line at the end of the 19th century in his poem Soir d’hiver (Winter Evening). More than a hundred years later, these words still resonate as powerfully as when they were first written. To me, this poem represents more than the dark existentialism it suggests — it reminds me of the harshness of winter and the solitude of icy landscapes, but also that behind the inexorable passage of time lies a certain melancholic beauty.

Jardin de givre seeks to answer Nelligan’s question: “What is the spasm of living?”

By illustrating the beauty of our world — detailing its curiosities, its complexity, and its frivolities — this website allows readers to feel transported beyond that simple spasm of life, to where mystery and wonder reside.

— Vincent Desjardins