Partager l'article

Vegetable Gardens with a view: When the rooftops of Paris metamorphose into urban farms…

Picking strawberries or herbs for dinner while watching the dome of the Invalides? It’s a dream come true! For the past few years, the rooftops of the capital have been transformed into vegetable gardens. Agricultural areas are springing up on top of Haussmann-style buildings, creating a new rural horizon on the Paris skyline. Urban agriculture, which appeared in the mid-2000s, is now booming.

Initially introduced in New York and Singapore in response to a lack of space, the phenomenon has spread to France and gained momentum in Paris. Where start-ups and innovative companies are multiplying projects for urban vegetable gardens and farms on the rooftops of the capital and its outskirts. While the initial idea of these new perched gardens was to bring green back into the city, as the green facades have made possible, they go further by providing restaurants, culinary craftsmen and the general public with fresh produce.

These urban vegetable gardens may differ in format or the species grown there, but what they all have in common is that they develop local production that is as environmentally friendly as possible and offer the establishment of ultra-short distribution channels. Conceived as places for sharing and conviviality – some even operate on a community model – they help to create real social links while being able to play an educational role. Old, forgotten species are revalued, and nature trails are created. Combining healthy food and agricultural initiation, the metamorphosis of Parisian rooftops sketches out what could well be the skyline of the city of the future.
Stroll in the heart of four top vegetable gardens with Acumen !

The Haussmann Perched Gardens at Galeries Lafayette

Thanks to an innovative and proactive greening policy, the roof of Galeries Lafayette became France’s first urban commercial rooftop farm in 2015. Today, 18,000 plants are cultivated there thanks to a vertical permaculture system invented for the site by the company “Sous les fraises”, operator and partner of Galeries Lafayette for the project. Strawberries, purple oxalis, cherry tomatoes, hops, begonias, and other species grow there in a material made of sheep’s wool, hemp and soil.
Aromatic plants coexist with edible flowers, as well as a microscopic multitude of plants, fungi and microorganisms that make it possible to avoid the use of chemical fertilizers. Urban vegetable gardens aim to reintroduce agriculture to cities and put food from our gardens back on our plates, and their products are delivered to artisans or restaurants in an ultra-short circuit.
If Galeries Lafayette’s vegetable garden is not accessible to the public, its produce is delivered to the chefs of partner restaurants or is transformed directly by local artisans into various products, such as honey and fruit nougats, sweet and savory biscuits, herbal teas or beers.

Galeries Lafayette
40, boulevard Haussmann, Paris 9e

galerie lafayette

The Perched Garden at the BHV

Living in the city differently, rethinking one’s diet, and bringing nature back to Paris are the challenges of the BHV. Located on the 7th and 8th floors of the department store, and developed in partnership with the company “Sous les fraises”, the BHV Marais vegetable garden is a 1,500 m² vertical garden composed of 22,000 plants and exotic fruits grown without chemicals! There are raspberries, blackcurrants, daylilies, nasturtiums, salad burnet, physalis and mandarin, all grown in the tradition of the great French master gardeners. Accessible to all, this perched garden can be visited thanks to a partnership with Airbnb. A two-hour walk among the crops allows you to pick strawberries with a breathtaking view over the rooftops of Paris. The harvests are processed and provide an online grocery store, a pop-up store and restaurants delighted to tap into this vegetal maze of edible flowers, plants and fresh fruit.

Visits every first Saturday of the month: book on the BHV website.
Airbnb Experience on Wednesdays from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.: book two weeks in advance on the Airbnb website.

BHV Marais
52 rue de Rivoli, Paris 4th

potager de l'hotel trach

The vegetable garden of the Hotel Brach

Between farmhouse and urban garden, the 7th floor of the Brach Hotel brings the countryside into the 16th arrondissement of Paris. With its breathtaking 360°C view, this space is a parenthesis of vegetation, combining the spectacle of the rooftops of the capital with a breeze of country freshness. Aromatic plants, seasonal fruit and vegetables make up this bucolic setting where three luxury hens, named Suzie, Berenice and Eglantine, also live.
All summer long, the hotel provides its guests with gourmet baskets to share in a picnic style. Reserved since the opening of the Brach to its residents only, the rooftop-vegetable garden now opens its doors for the first time to outside guests.

Rooftop accessible from 6:30 p.m. to midnight, without reservation.
Basket for two (tradition, veggie, or fine gourmet) from 65 €, including 1 bottle of Rose et Or, Château Minuty 2018. Compulsory renewal of drinks every hour.

Hôtel Brach
1-7, rue Jean Richepin, Paris 16e

peas&love

Peas&Love, the rooftop gardens at the Yooma Hotel

The roof of the Yooma Hotel in Beaugrenelle is one of the 5 high-rise farms operated in Paris by the start-up company Peas&Love. This start-up was created to answer a simple question: how can you grow your vegetables when you don’t have a green thumb?

To do this, Peas&Love rents individual plots of land in the heart of the city that are maintained by “Community Farmers.” Each vegetable garden is operated in a vertical production following the rules of permaculture: improving biodiversity and managing the effects of heat islands. A total of 248 plots are available for rent on the roof of this hotel in the heart of Paris, all at very reasonable prices. All you have to do is harvest and cook fresh vegetables and fruit (radishes, salads, strawberries, redcurrants, aromatic herbs), all grown without insecticides or pesticides. Peas&Love aims to open 150 vegetable gardens within a few years; 30 will be in Paris.
The agricultural metamorphosis of the Parisian sky has only just begun!

Yooma Hôtel
51, quai de Grenelle, Paris 15e