Paris: City of Bees

In this town, bees are practically as omnipresent as baguettes.

I was lucky enough to be invited to the very first honey harvest on the roof of La Poste du Louvre,
Paris' central post office, located next to the Musee du Louvre.
Not only is it France's only 24/7 post office, but it is also the first such establishment in France
to install hives on its roof... others around the country will follow suit next spring! 

The ceiling-high glass beehive inside the apartment of a beekeeping couple
Imagine eating dinner across the table from this display! 

A photo showing the apartment balcony in wintertime, beehives buried under the snow.

A set of bee pencil-sharpeners is on display in the beekeepers' apartment.
Each one represents a different role played by the bees in the hive:
guards, queen, workers, drones, larva, nurses, etc. 

Elaine posing with a jar of pollen inside "Famille Mary," one of the city's many honey boutiques

A honey, beeswax, and bee products boutique in the 13th arrondissement.

Here, I'm talking with the pastor of a church near the Champs Elysees; he keeps beehives on the roof of the church.
(The honey is sold as a fundraiser for the church.)

I spied the word "ruche" on the side of a building on the Rue de Rivoli.
"Ruche" means "beehive," here used to describe the Samaritaine's
employment of thousands of  people after World War II; it was a "hive of activity"

Today's bonus pictures: capoeiristas having a roda on the lawn of the Louvre.
(That kid's macaco is impressive, no?)

Headlines abuzz with bees...and politics

Having just reached the halfway point in my stay in Paris, I’ve begun to change gears in this research project. I say “Au revoir” to weeks filled with serial interviews and honey harvests; my creative juices are now dedicated to writing. No, not writing this blog, as you may have noticed, but chipping away at the twenty-five page paper which I am obliged to present to my school. A small price to pay indeed! I do not think I’ll be suffering any sort of writer’s block with this essay, except perhaps the occasional bee sting to my hands.

Other than writing furiously, I’ve been reading up on the biggest headline-making news item in the States. Though it has nothing to do with the raising of debt ceilings, it has just as many people worked into a tizzy. Below are a collection of articles which give a nice overview of just how big of a deal this whole newfangled urban beekeeping trend is.

June 2011: Read about Nicole, a homeowner near San Francisco, whose neighbor is dangling the local zoning laws over her head and ordering her to remove a new beehive from her garden, or else… http://www.usatoday.com/LIFE/usaedition/2011-06-22-Beekeeping-fights_CV_U.htm

August 2, 2011: In this BBC interview, my maybe-someday mentor, Professor Jane Memmot, discusses the fascinating paradox about how pollinators flourish in urban habitats. Also worth noting is the £10-million “Insect Pollinators Initiative”, funded by several organizations and governments in Britain. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14309007

2010: Watch the trailer for “Queen of the Sun,” an award-winning documentary about the beauty of bees and humanity’s interdependence with them. (I secretly hope to screen this film on campus next semester, perhaps with a honey tasting to follow.)

http://www.queenofthesun.com/

The New York Times website has a special section devoted to bees, through which you can read all about the latest rooftop hive installations in NYC, and the fight to legalize beekeeping throughout the city.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/bees/index.html

Last, but not least, is a link to the website of Los Angeles’ traditional beekeeping club, the “Backwards Beekeepers.” Given that beekeeping is highly regulated in Los Angeles county, with zoning codes that differ from  neighborhood to neighborhood, these Angeleno bee-enthusiasts have the challenging task of uniting L.A. under a less-restrictive beekeeping code. Needless to say, I’ll be joining this bunch of backwards beekeepers when I return home to L.A. Maybe I’ll even buy the tee shirt.

http://www.backwardsbeekeepers.com/