Parisian life is sweet as bees outdo their rural cousins
Tuesday August 18 2009
Tourists are not the only species swarming on the Champs Elysees this August. Also enjoying the sunshine are squadrons of bees, part of a fast-multiplying population that is making honey a new Parisian industry.
The Tuileries, Luxembourg and lesser other gardens of Paris are now home to hundreds of thousands of bees that are far more productive than their country cousins.
"There are a huge quantity of flowers in Paris," said Yves Vedrenne, the general secretary of the National Apiculture Union.
As well as the city's lush parks and gardens, the boulevards and edges of motorways offer pollen well-suited to bees, such as acacias, limes and chestnuts, he said.
Not only is the city largely free from the pesticides and fertilisers that are killing the countryside bees, the warmth of the urban area also promotes earlier breeding.
There are about 300 registered hives in the city, with more believed to be undeclared as residents try their hand at beekeeping, which can be learnt on two-day courses.
The total output is estimated at several tonnes a year.
Hives must be no less than 25 metres from hospitals or schools and have a two-metre screen if they are not on a high building.
Until last May, the biggest hives were on the roof of the Garnier Opera.
They were joined then by around 140,000 bees installed on the glass dome of the Grand Palais, the majestic 1900 exhibition hall off the Champs Elysees.
Nicolas Geant, the beekeeper behind the Grand Palais scheme, said the city's bees could produce up to five times the output of insects in the great rural expanses.
The Champs Elysees honey is to be sold under the Grand Palais label, joining other miel de Paris brands that cost a steep e15 for a 125g pot at high-end food outlets.
The honey flavour is described by experts as sweet and subtle, lacking any trace of exhaust fumes or the Metro underground smell that is a Paris signature. (© The Times, London)
- Charles Bremner in Paris
