La Petite Ceinture

Today we walked a mile-long nature trail in the heart of Paris. La Petite Ceinture (“the little belt”) was a Victorian train line that once circled the city, used mainly for delivering freight. A stretch of it in the 16th arrondissement is now a gently maintained pathway through volunteer trees, grass and different wildlife habitats. [...]

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Dreams of Chelsea

Today is the first day of the Chelsea Flower Show and each year we become rather wistful, thinking about the wonderful show gardens, and indeed about our own little plot back in England. The French don’t really have an equivalent to Chelsea. But many chateaux run fine plant shows, like the well-known Journée des Plantes [...]

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A garden on the Champs-Elysées

This weekend the eight-lane avenue des Champs-Elysées in the middle of Paris has become a “jardin extraordinaire.” To celebrate International Biodiversity Day, over 150,000 trees and other plants from all over France are replacing the cars for a magical 36 hours. Called Nature Capitale, the event is the brain-child of one man, Gad Weil, who [...]

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