The buzzzz on Paris' rooftops.
You may be surprised to discover that many of the famous buildings you visit in Paris have beehives on their rooftops. Some passionate Parisians are even installing hives on the rooftops of their offices and apartment balconies. Paris is fast becoming the centre of apiculture and this could be contributing to the salvation of bees.
There is a growing public awareness of the crisis in rural bee keeping in France caused by the collapse in bee numbers. It has been a catastrophic year for French bees. Honey harvests in some regions has been particularly hit hard by last year’s peculiar weather (heavy winter rainfalls and short spring followed by months of drought and northerly winds) and have fallen by up to 80%. On the other hand, it appears that city bees seem to be immune to the health problems faced by their country cousins.
Paris, with 500,000 trees and large shrubs from 150 different species, provides the perfect pollination ground
for hundreds of thousands of bees. They may also be thriving in Paris because of the decision to make the
French capital a pesticide-free zone 10 years ago. The warm city environment seems to help
early breeding.
There
are around 400 hives in Paris including famous buildings, hotels, offices, balconies and public parks. Many famous restaurants, for
example La Tour d’Argent, have installed hives on their rooftops and produce their own fresh honey. It is on trend to publicise this as a unique selling point.
Because
apiculture - the ‘art of bee keeping’ - is so popular in the city of Paris, you
can actually take beekeeping classes with the Societe Centrale d’Apiculture.
Beehives
can be found on some very famous landmarks. Amongst others, they include:
Notre Dame
There are
about 200,000 bees inhabiting hives at Notre Dame. After a fire destroyed
the roof of the cathedral in 2019, there were fears that the bees and their hives would not survive!
Amazingly they did!
Opera Garnier
Jean Paucton, a 76 years old prop man, set up his hives about twenty years ago on the roof of the Opera Garnier as a hobby and is now fully graduated from the Société Centrale for apiculture in the Luxembourg gardens.
It all started when he was given a hive by a friend and did not know what to do with it. An Opera firefighter, who himself bred fish
in the underground pond beneath the opera, gave him the idea of setting up hives on the roof of the Opera.
Jardin du Luxembourg
The
Luxembourg Gardens' hives are grouped together in the southwest corner of the
park and the beekeeper organisation of the Ecole Rucher looks after the bees.
Le Grand
Palais
Nicolas Geant who attends the bees at Notre Dame Cathedral has more hives on the roof of the Grand Palais.
You can
buy Paris’s honey at "La Maison du Miel", Fauchon, La Grande Épicerie de Paris
and Monoprix – they carry a selection, as do many outdoor neighbourhood
markets.
Le Miel
de Paris, produced by "Confidences d'Abeilles" are passionate about
apiculture and create genuine French honey, cosmetics and products in the Rhone-Alpes.
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