The city of Paris in France is growing the first urban forest of its kind in the circular Place de Catalogne roundabout. This is a part of a multi-year bid to transform the city of lights into a ‘garden city.’

In a greening project that began in 2021, the Paris City Hall targets to plant 170,000 trees by 2026. In end November 2023, 63,000 trees had already graced the circular  roundabout. 

 The stunning Place de Catalogne roundabout that dates back to the 1980s has always been a busy traffic spot. In recent years, however, it has gradually altered into a green zone for cycling.

These rapid changes are the practical vision of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. The mayor’s greening project, which also seeks to phase out diesel guzzlers off the roads, did not start now. In her initial 6-year term, she made Paris a bicycle-friendly city by building voie verte, French for green biking lanes.

Concerning the budding forestry in Paris under her initiative, Hidalgo feels that natural foliage is bound to lower urban temperatures.

“The temperatures one could feel in this little forest will be 4 degrees lower,” commented Hidalgo, in comparative terms to outer Paris.  

Major urban space transformations have offshoot this greening phase. One of these is the closing of car parks near a school-flanked street. In winter 2022 alone, some 25,000 seedlings went into planting in such changing mini-parks.

Tree Span in Paris

There were around 110,000 trees in the streets, avenues, boulevards and city squares of Paris in end 2022. This is according to Paris Urbanism Agency (Apur).

The public agency also cites that 700 kilometres of mostly wide roads within Paris are under leafy cover in 2023.

Common trees in the boulevards include the winged elm, white mulberry, Osane orange and the common persimmon tree. 

Paris also prides in an eclectic range of international common trees that include sugarberry (Celtis laevigata). This is a medium-sized deciduous tree of North American origin. Sophoras and Norway maples are also some of the mature foreign trees that are a common part of the city’s flora. 

For the sidewalks and public parks, plane trees, horse chestnut, silver linden, hackberry and Turkish hazel abound.

 Greenest City around Christmas

The city of lights extends between Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, which breath life into its urban sprawl. Hence, Paris’ authorities call these green spaces ‘lungs’ and refer to the city as one of the greenest in Europe.

Even as Christmas nears, the sense of green consciousness is informing the ‘green city’ mentality. The premium prices of eco-friendly holiday trees tell of the spread of this sense of greenery. Sellers of cut trees for the holiday season are asking from 35 Euro per cut tree.

In conclusion, the plan to make Paris a garden city did not begin recently. In Christmas 2014, a tree monument went up in Place Vendóme and the tradition continues to date.