The Secret Garden

Tom, the film director, passed me an article from the New York Times about the hidden gardens of Paris. One, in particular, caught my eye - a narrow neighborhood garden along the side of a disused railway track where graffiti artists have decorated the walls. 

The catch - you cannot get in unless accompanied by a "member". To contact a member required e-mail and phone calls. But Friday morning I secured entry to this magic place.

The garden is in the very north of the 18th arrondissement near to the Porte de Clignancourt. I descended the metal staircase to find a narrow strip of land, terraced into tiny morsels of earth, planted with wild flowers. Rose-covered arches mark the length of the terrain and at strategic points there are long tables with chairs piled on top. This is a garden where social events take place, a garden where the relatively poor neighborhood can meet in a green space, a garden where the children can witness changing seasons through what grows.

Further along the railway line I met Mary, a New Yorker, tending her tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and recently planted vines. Denis Loubaton, president of the Association of the Jardins du Ruisseau took me on a tour of the upper terrace and invited me back in September for a festival when the association will inaugurate a water collection system using old wine barrels to collect and store the rainwater that tumbles from the derelict railway station.

I have some new photos.