Hidden on the rooftop terraces of Opéra Bastille, 2,500 m2 of gardens provide hyperlocal fruits, vegetables, and edible flowers to the restaurants, grocery stores, and producers of Paris. Spread across four terraces, these gardens are part of a citywide effort to add green spaces to the built environment. There are several benefits to doing this, such as reducing the urban heat bubble effect. The Opéra Bastille is typically two to four degrees hotter than the rest of Paris, and in the summer, temperatures can be as many as ten degrees hotter. Introducing plants to the heat-absorbing slate rooftops helps to combat this issue by providing shade and reducing atmospheric CO2. They also create “green corridors” which aid biodiversity and migration amongst birds and insects in Paris. This is definitely working at the Bastille, as I saw more insects – including bees – here than in any other part of Paris I’ve visited so far, including ground level gardens.
One of the terraces on the Opéra Bastille. Protective netting covers some onions, while beds of herbs are left uncovered. In the background, planting structures for shade providing beans are waiting for the growing season. Photo courtesy of Isabella Heckert (2025).
Crops, like the fava beans shown in this photo, are delivered by bicycle to two grocery stores, two restaurants, and small scale producers in Paris. Image courtesy of Isabella Heckert (2025).
But how does it all work? On the Bastille, layers of waterproof fabric, clay balls, and substrate combine to create a workable growing medium. Since soil is too heavy for the rooftop, the 15 cm of substrate that coats the entire rooftop is made of compost, clay, and lightweight volcanic rock. Another 15 cm of substrate is added to the growing beds for a total of 30 cm of usable growing medium, deep enough for root vegetables like carrots. Their growing capacities are limited by location and space, though – one of the two terraces we visited are only accessible by a spiral staircase and the other through a complicated series of tight hallways, stairs, and mechanical rooms. The gardeners must move their materials by hand, so progress is slow. This also means that the gardens are inaccessible to opera employees. Visitors can only see the gardens if they book a tour, like we did. Ironically, the two other biggest challenges are heat and pests, namely birds and insects. Gardeners must carefully choose heat-resistant crops and plant them to maximize shade, so that the extreme urban heat doesn’t damage the plants. They must also keep them covered to prevent them from being eaten by birds and insects. Another tactic to reduce pests is only planting crops in in the same space every four years, to prevent pest cycles from forming.
The Opéra Bastille gardens are especially intriguing because, as we have noticed throughout Paris, most of the farmer’s markets that people rely on for fresh fruit and vegetables sell produce from other countries. Urban agriculture projects like this one help to fill that gap by growing organic produce in the same city where they will be sold (Eliette Whittaker’s field notes (3/24/2025). Especially with the new laws promoting green spaces in Paris rooftop gardens like this one have great potential for helping short chain food systems take hold in urban environments where they would not usually appear. And, of course, one final point of interest is the view from the top!
The view from the highest terrace on the Opéra Bastille. Image courtesy of Isabella Heckert (2025).