Lovers of English lawns and impeccable lawns may not like the walk in the Monumental cemetery in Rouen (Seine-Maritime).
Gravel paths around the tombs gradually replaced by a grassy carpet, wild plants which flourish, rational mowing which marks out paths instead of razing everything ... There is something romantic about this site which is at the same time a place of meditation and a park, an open-air history book - Gustave Flaubert is notably buried there - and a paradise for biodiversity since the Rouen municipality decided to manage its natural spaces differently.
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"We are not going to lie to each other, at the beginning we had complaints," recalls Julien Goossens, the deputy director in charge of the renaturation of the city within the Directorate of public and natural spaces.
But we also received messages that encouraged us to continue because people increasingly understand the value of not using phytosanitary products.
"Products that were still sometimes used in Rouen cemeteries by little touch, but which will in any case have to completely disappear from July 1, 2022." We preferred to anticipate and think about another approach to what may be a cemetery and its relationship to nature ”, specifies the City.
Here is the pyramidal orchid and the bee orphys again
The team of seven gardeners who maintain the premises therefore no longer spend their time eradicating "weeds", but on the contrary tries to work in harmony with the plants, mowing them only when necessary while guaranteeing access. at burials for families who want to meditate there. As a result, biodiversity has never been so good on these heights of the city. “We entrusted the botanists of the Jardin des Plantes to carry out a study in the cemetery. And we had the good surprise to find wild terrestrial orchids which made a return there since they like on these limestone hillsides.There are, for example, specimens of Pyramidal Orchis that we easily recognize with its pyramid-shaped flower or the Bee Ophrys whose flower imitates the shape of a bee to be more easily pollinated. In total, we found five different species on the Monumental cemetery alone ”.
For Julien Goossens, it is proof of the resilience of nature which only asks to regain its rights if given the opportunity. “That doesn't mean you shouldn't do anything more and let yourself be invaded. But it is about learning to cohabit in the interest of all ”.
