Notre Dame Cathedral Bees Survive The Fire
Notre Dame Cathedral is just one of the famous buildings in Paris that have active beehives on their rooftop and as the fire raged through the Cathedral on 15 April 2019 the survival of the rooftop bees and their beehives was on many peoples' minds.
On Monday the 15th April, the day of the disastrous fire, I was gazing up at the scaffolding and taking photos only an hour before the fire broke out and the fate of the bees crossed my mind on hearing about the fire, having researched and published my article Paris' Rooftop Beehives in 2015 all about Paris' hidden beehives and their keepers.
More...
Amazingly the Notre Dame beehives, situated on top of a sacristry that adjoins the Cathedral, did not burn and the smoke of the fire didn't affect the bees. This good news was shared on social media by French urban beekeeping company Beeopic Apiculture on Thursday, 18 April. For a few days straight after the fire though, the outcome of the beehives and the bees was not known. Aerial photos later showed the hives were okay but the state of the little hard working insects was not immediately known.
Notre Dame Cathedral only days after 15 April 2019 fire. Photo from roof of Institut du Monde Arabe
Nicholas Geant really wanted to check his hives, that he had been responsible for since 2013, but due to the unstable and unsafe structure he was not able to. Later Geant was told the good news by the Cathedral spokesman who said "they are going in and out of the hives". There are currently around 200,000 bees that live in these hives.
Each of his hives on Notre Dame produces a surprisingly large amount of honey with approximately 25 kilogrammes each year, and these are not the only hives producing a lot of honey in the city. There are also hives in Jardin du Luxembourg, atop the Palais Garnier, atop the Louise Vuitton Paris flagship store and in the garden of the National Institute for Young Deaf People. Read more about these hives, their beekeepers and even a beekeeping course in the Jardin du Luxembourg in our article Paris' Rooftop Beehives.
The special honey created by Paris' little insect population can be purchased from Fauchon, Monoprix and La Grande Epicerie de Paris.
As the evaluation of the damage continues and new roof designs are being submitted for consideration, the Notre Dame rooftop bees continue with their work amongst the spring blossom and flowers that abound in nearby Square Jean XVII, Square du Vert-Galant and St-Julien-le-Pauvre. In Paris, the survival of the bees has been seen as a sign of hope in an otherwise disastrous national event.
