Saint-Denis (AFP)
Supervised by shepherds, walkers and two policemen on a scooter, 27 ewes set off on Saturday to attack the islets of greenery defying the concrete around Paris, the beginning of a transhumance of twelve days which will end in the center of Paris. the capital.
At midday, the herd abandoned the green lawn of the park bordering the basilica of Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), the necropolis of the kings of France, to begin a route of 140 km.
At a slow speed and under a blazing sun, the sheep grazed methodically clumps of grass emerging from the bitumen, watered by water drawn from the canal of Saint-Denis, noted a photographer of AFP.
Their bursting into this densely urbanized area amused residents and motorists, some of whom were bleating in their wake.
Shepherds, accompanied by a small group of walkers, secured the advance of the sheep, supported by two policemen on a scooter to cross the roads.
Destination: the tracks on the Parisian banks that they will reach on July 17, at the end of a wide loop crossing some thirty communes including Vincennes, Ivry-sur-Seine, Sceaux and Versailles.
The journey of these sheep, installed in the year in the departmental park of Courneuve, is organized by the Metropolis of Greater Paris and the cultural media online "Enlarge Your Paris" to "connect the innovative places in urban agriculture ".
"The most important thing for us is to show that sheep in the city is possible," Julie-Lou Dubreuilh, co-founder of the Urban Shepherds, told AFP.
? 2019 AFP