Did you know that Paris host many bees?!
It sounds incredible! But the fact is that Paris counts more than 300 beehives in the city.
Production of honey is amazing in Paris and bees are really more productive than in countryside’s.
Honey production and bees in Paris are an old tradition, the first beehives appeared in the city in 1872 (!) in the Luxembourg Gardens.

Most of them are located in gardens, parks and hoods (Vincennes, Boulogne, Mairie du 4ème, Parc Kellerman, Le Jardin d’Acclimatation…) but more unusually they can be found also on famous Parisian roofs such as the Opera Garnier, Opera Bastille roofs or the restaurant La Tour d’Argent.
This phenomenon reveals the Green side of the city which is not using harmful products which usually limit bees’ and other animals’ performance as in countryside.

Beehives in cities produce more than the others.
Indeed while a countryside producer collects 7 kilos of honey a Parisian producers, as Jean Paucton and its beehives on the Opera Garnier roofs, collects 100 kilos!!

Nowadays, bees’ lives are better in cities thanks to the temperatures (a bit higher) and less phytosanitary treatments.
Flowering happens more regularly and allows the bees to collect pollen on a longer time frame.
Also as there is a better diversity of flowers in Paris, the Parisian honey compete in the highest level.

Therefore and thanks to its good quality today some French chiefs, as Patrick Roger a famous chocolate maker, have their own beehives. In his laboratory in Sceaux near Paris, Patrick Roger has 10 beehives (800 000 bees) and use the honey in his production of chocolates and sweets.

In 2010, for its first collect Patrick Roger gathered 25 kilos per beehive, means 250 kilos of honey! Major part of the honey is used to make chocolates and sweets but from September a part is sold in his Parisian shops (Madeleine, Faubourg, St Germain, Victor Hugo and Rennes). In addition if you desire to test some Parisian honey mixed with great chocolate, Patrick Roger created a chocolate named “Abeille” made with his own honey (available after honey collects).

Links:
Bees on operas’ roofs http://www.picturetank.com/___/series/b773991aac75a12c6b8dafb20e716a70/Bees_in_Paris.html
Patrick Roger’s site: http://www.patrickroger.com/fr/index.php
To buy Parisian honey: http://www.madeleinemarket.com/epicerie-fine/confiture-miel-compote/miel/2890-miel-de-la-tour-d-argent.html
Les Abeilles, 21, rue de la Butte-aux-Cailles, Paris 13ème

| Terms and conditions | About us | Be a part of it /Partners/Owners | Contact us |