NATURE CAPITALE ON THE CHAMPS ELYSEES

Nature Capitale is a project that is turning the Champs Elysees into a gigantic garden to celebrate World Day of Biodiversity. The world's most famous boulevard has over 150 varieties of plants and trees and absolutely no cars for 2 days. What an undertaking, n'est-ce pas? The manpower and planning this event required was a miracle that transformed this avenue into a garden overnight.

This is the poster that is all over Paris showing the conceptual idea of this special project. The only difference from the poster to what was actually set up is the color of the pathways between all the different variety of trees and plants. The red material you see in my photos is red mulch that was laid down by filling grocery carts with the mulch and a worker would shake the cart so that the mulch would fall through the slats as he walked along. Ingenious.

I was absolutely excited to see this transformation of the Champs Elysees, so I was out of the apartment at 7:00 a.m. to go see the final setup of the park. I wasn't the only one. Anyone with a camera was there and we took our pictures with great grins on our faces. Here on the boulevard where many stylish people have strolled in their Parisian finery were crops, cows, pigs and a vineyard or two.

There was a large plot of mustard plants in all their yellow finery. I bowed to this plant ... I'm a great lover of Dijon mustard.

All the restaurants seemed to open early on this Sunday serving breakfasts to all the onlookers who had come to see the special event. The chefs and their assistants took a break to come outside and see the park coming together as well. How nice it would be for them to step outside their kitchens to pick their fresh produce and herbs.

While I watched, the workers unloaded cows, goats and pigs into their corrals and were putting up large umbrellas to keep sun off the stars of the show. I guess it was like a day at the beach for them.

It was fun to look to your right and see this large garden and then look to your left and see large stores like Louis Vuitton. I think that is why all of us were having a chuckle this morning.

Even the famous Luduree Cafe was open earlier than usual. Don't you love the couple sitting in the upper left hand window having a lovely breakfast while watching all the activities on the street?

Only in Paris you say .... what a pity. What a wonderful message this special event was giving to the citizens of Paris and France and hopefully it will inspire those of us in North American to get on board the biodiversity bandwagon.