“La Traversine” is the name for an urban pedagogical garden of 300m2 located on the roof of the Bercy school in the 12th arrondissement in Paris. It is one of the 30 projects selected by the City of Paris for its competition “Parisculteurs”.
[Traversine], a name that symbolizes a gateway towards other cultures, as a North-South "agri-cultural" exchanges.

Located on the roof of the Bercy school, in Paris in the 12th arrondissement, this terrace, originally intended only to serve as a passage in the event of evacuation, has today been transformed into an experimental and educational garden. Designing Hope conceived an urban vegetable garden gathering several approaches to sustainable agriculture (agro-ecology, permaculture), already implemented by the association with children in Burkina Faso, South Africa, Swaziland, and Senegal.
By using the program “Communicating Classes” chosen by the school of Bercy, and the equipment of relay classes in Africa, the activities around La Traversine encourage the exchanges of experiences, and the activities realized around the garden.
Playful activities for children, organized in small groups during the extracurricular time in collaboration with the educational team, echoe with those carried out in the schools of the other countries.
We approach various themes: the soil, the seed, the cycles of life of a plant, the compost, the auxiliaries, the methods of culture.
We sensitize the children to the valorization of the resources of the school for the fertilization of the garden (composting of the leaves, branches of the trees of the courtyard, remains of the canteen).
Finally, we encourage them to try some plantations at home, if they have a balcony, or if they can access a garden somewhere with a family member, encouraging recycling, composting, and giving them seeds or plants, as we do in Africa.
In September 2020, after “taking flight” on the rooftops of Bercy, Designing Hope “roots” its presence and installs a new garden, Traversine #2, in the ground this time, in the back yard of the elementary school.
A garden of proximity, animated each week by a team of animators from the association.
A pedagogical treasure hunt has been set up by the association to animate this garden every week.
Click below to contribute to the management of this garde:
The garden located on the terrace, required wooden structures made of Douglas as weel as pieces made of steel. Click on the tiles bellow to know more about our garden:
A project supported by: