Peach walls are a French technique of growing peach trees beside walls, with limbs being espaliered or trellised. Peach walls were established as early as the 17th century in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis.[1]
At their peak in 1870, the Montreuil peach orchards were 600km long and produced 17 million peaches.[notes 1] These crops, unique alongside those of Chasselas de Thomery, near Fontainebleau, which adopted the same principle, enabled fruit varieties usually reserved for the mild climates of southern France to be produced in the climate of the Paris region.
History in Montreuil
A few plots of peache walls have been restored by the MAP association.
On the vast Montreuil plateau, each narrow, elongated plot, oriented north–south, was enclosed by a 2.70 m-high wall,[2] topped by a tile roof. The southern walls, which enclosed the plot, were set back from the road, to preserve a usable side. A fruit tree called "costière en dehors" was planted here.
The walls were floated with plaster to increase their thermal inertia, i.e. their heat retention capacity. By accumulating solar energy during the day and releasing it at night, they reduced the risk of frost and accelerated ripening. As Montreuil's subsoil was rich in gypsum, plaster was cheap and easy to produce.
Montreuil-sous-Bois: panoramic view of the clos des pêches.
The thickness of the walls, built on a foundation to prevent rising dampness, varied from 55cm at the base to 25cm at the top. A system of removable wooden roofs protected against spring rains, which can lead to peach blistering. Rolling mats insulated the fruit trees on cold nights.
In these isolated plots, temperatures were routinely 8 to 12°C above ambient.
Trellising and cultivation
Peach tree trellising: the branches are attached to the wall with nailed "rags". The wooden parts at the top of the wall support removable roofs during inclement weather.
To adapt to the plateau's limestone soil, peach trees were grafted onto almond rootstock trees. They were pruned to fit as close as possible to the heat-producing wall. The peach trees, trained in espaliers "à la diable",[notes 2] were leaning against the east and west walls, and trellised with canvas ties nailed into the masonry.[notes 3]
The central part of each plot was also planted with peach or apple trees, which did not need to be protected by walls. Wind-fed peach trees produced smaller fruit than trellised ones, but had one advantage: there was no need to brush the fruit, which lost its fuzz in the wind.
The presence of the vast Parisian market, with its proximity to Les Halles, provided a guaranteed outlet for these crops.[notes 4] The fruit merchants who came to Les Halles de Paris were known as montreuils,[3] as were their peaches. Émile Zola mentions them in Le Ventre de Paris: "the peaches above all, the blushing Montreuil ones, thin-skinned and fair like Northern girls".[4]
This production was complemented by floral crops (lilacs, daffodils, irises, delphiniums, roses, peonies), and by vine and raspberry plantations, which provided additional income for arboriculturists. They are also evoked by Zola, who mentions "the brilliants and Valenciennes worn by the daughters of the great gardeners of Montreuil, who came among their roses".[4]
At the king's table
Montreuil peaches became famous thanks to their presence at the French court in the 17th century.[5] This reputation facilitated their export to the finest tables in neighboring countries. The Queen of England, and even the Tsars of Russia, imported peaches from Montreuil. Many of the peach varieties now grown around the world were created in Montreuil at this time, including the Prince of Wales, the Grosse Mignonne,[6][7][8] and the Téton de Vénus.[9][10][11]
Among the montreuillois horticulturists most active in variety creation were Alexis Lepère (1799–1883),[12] Arthur Chevreau, Joseph Beausse, Désiré Chevalier and Louis Aubin.[13][14]
19th-century decline
The absence of a comprehensive development project on the part of the municipality and the Conseil Général is leading to the rapid and irreversible destruction of the remaining orchards.
Peach orchards reached their apogee in the second half of the 19th century, covering more than a third of the town of Montreuil, 320 ha for more than 300km of walls and around 600km of linear planting, and extending well into the towns of Rosny, Romainville, Bagnolet and Fontenay.[15]
From the end of the 19th century, the expansion of the railroads led to a decline in peach production. Fruit from the south of France, which came earlier, was the first to reach the Paris market, at a lower cost.[notes 5] Orchards and walls were gradually destroyed and disappeared into the urban fabric. In 2006, 17km of severely degraded walls remained, out of the original 600km. The Murs à pêches (MAP) association is working to save them.[notes 6]
Site evolution 1950-2010
In 1953, an area of 50 ha was classified as a protected horticultural zone, but the 1976 SDRIF transformed the sector into an urban green space reserve. When the SDRIF was revised in 1994, this protective status was transformed into an 80% urban zone, reflecting the State's abandonment of the site, with the consent of the municipality at the time.
Despite the obvious reluctance of the commune and the Conseil Général, who downgraded the remaining 37 ha to a "land reserve" for business activities, 8.5 ha were finally retained and definitively classified by the French Ministry of Ecology on December 16, 2003, as a Site and Landscape.
This protected area (only 300 × 300 m) in no way resolves the future of the remaining gardens, now occupied by scrap merchants.[notes 7]
According to the association, an immediate and inexpensive solution would be to rent out these plots to residents, in the form of allotments - there is a very high unmet demand for allotments in Montreuil -, which would enhance and preserve the site and enable the walls to be gradually renovated. In the meantime, the association has acquired a 600 m2 plot that its owner wished to sell, and a public subscription was launched in the summer of 2007 to raise the necessary €24,000. An international youth work camp organized by Union Rempart enabled some twenty meters of wall to be replastered during the summer of 2007.[16] Since then, the same association has restored the outer wall, known as the "costière".
Site evolution since 2010
In 2015, a project to sell plots of land to the Bouygues group, the result of an appeal entitled Inventons la métropole du Grand Paris (Let's Invent the Greater Paris Metropolis), sparked controversy and provoked a major mobilization.[17] An opinion piece, with 800 signatories in 2018, denounced the "attacks of the concreters" and opposed the transfer of the two hectares concerned by the project from natural zone jurisdiction to that of an urbanizable zone.[18] Representatives of the MAP (Murs-À-Pêches) federation call on the municipality to "withdraw the Grand Paris project denaturing the Murs à Pêches site and to set up a public interest grouping to properly administer this site of national interest". The mayor's office retorts, citing "an essential project to provide the necessary funds for reconstruction".[19]
Since 2020: progress in heritage development
At the end of 2019, three murs à pêches gardens were awarded the "Remarkable Garden" label by the French Ministry of Culture.[20] In 2020, the Murs à pêches are awarded the "Heritage of Regional Interest" label by the Île-de-France Regional Council.[21][22]
In the same year, the Fondation du Patrimoine granted the site financial aid of 300,000 euros, the largest regional contribution to Stéphane Bern's Heritage Lotto, plus a 50,000 euro cultural sponsorship cheque signed by Française des Jeux and the opening of a popular subscription to raise a further 70,000 euros. For Mayor Patrice Bessac, "this support is recognition of the municipality's determination to move away from the status quo, to halt the continuing deterioration of the site and its walls, and to give impetus to a coherent vision devised collectively, while respecting the natural vocation of the site".[23]
In July 2021, the Montreuil town council voted to increase investment in the preservation of the site.[24] Between 2021 and 2025, almost 1.5 million euros will be devoted to restoring over ten thousand meters of wall.[25]
Peach walls in art
In the middle school of the Voltaire school group (Robespierre metro station), one of the ceramic panels by painter Maurice Boitel (1919–2007), who was commissioned to decorate the buildings in 1954, depicts peach tree espaliers along the stone and plaster walls of a Montreuil-sous-Bois orchard, which was still being tended at the time.[26][27]
Local toponymy
The peaches of Montreuil have remained part of the commune's cultural heritage, allowing for associations of ideas and puns. Cafés in Montreuil include La Pêche and La Grosse Mignonne, and the former municipal newspaper was named Montreuil Dépêche Hebdo.
The names of the Signac-Murs à pêches[28] and Bel Air-Grands Pêchers-Renan[29] neighborhoods also bear witness to these cultures.[30][31][32]
Seine-Saint-Denis is a department of France located in the Grand Paris metropolis in the Île-de-France region. In French, it is often referred to colloquially as quatre-vingt treize or neuf trois, after its official administrative number, 93. Its prefecture is Bobigny.
Argenteuil is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 12.3 km (7.6 mi) from the center of Paris. Argenteuil is a sub-prefecture of the Val-d'Oise department, the seat of the arrondissement of Argenteuil. Argenteuil is part of the Métropole du Grand Paris.
Montreuil, also known unofficially as Montreuil-sous-Bois, is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 6.6 km (4.1 mi) from the centre of Paris, in the Seine-Saint-Denis department and in the Métropole du Grand Paris. With a population of 111,367 as of 2020, Montreuil is the third most populous suburb of Paris after Boulogne-Billancourt and Saint-Denis. It is located north of Paris's Bois de Vincennes, on the border with Val-de-Marne.
Noisy-le-Grand is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 15.2 km (9.4 mi) from the centre of Paris. The commune of Noisy-le-Grand is part of the sector of Porte de Paris, one of the four sectors of the "new town" of Marne-la-Vallée.
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Bobigny is a commune, or town, in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France, France. It is located 9.1 km (5.7 mi) from the centre of Paris. Bobigny is the prefecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, as well as the seat of the Arrondissement of Bobigny. It is the 11th most populous commune in Seine-Saint-Denis (2019).
Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France, located 6.6 kilometres from the centre of Paris. It is part of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, in the Île-de-France region, and of the Métropole du Grand Paris. The commune was called Saint-Ouen until 2018, when it obtained a change of name by ministerial order.
La Courneuve is a commune in Seine-Saint-Denis, France. It is located 8.3 km (5.2 mi) from the center of Paris.
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Paris Métro Line 11 is one of the sixteen lines of the Paris Métro. It links Châtelet to Rosny–Bois-Perrier in the northeastern suburbs. This line was one of the last to be put into service in 1935; it was then intended to replace the Belleville funicular tramway, which closed in 1924. The line is 11.7 km in length with 19 stations.
Seine-Saint-Denis' seventh constituency is a French legislative constituency in the Seine-Saint-Denis département. It is entirely contained within the city of Montreuil.
Saint-Denis is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 9.4 km (5.8 mi) from the centre of Paris. Saint-Denis is the second most populated suburb of Paris, with a population of 113,116 at the 2020 census. It is a subprefecture of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, being the seat of the arrondissement of Saint-Denis. It is also part of the Métropole du Grand Paris.
Lycée Jean Jaurès is a sixth-form college/senior high school in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, France in the Paris metropolitan area, in the area of the Murs à pêches. The school was designed by French architect Jacques Carlu: its construction started in 1960 and it opened in 1964. The school was originally designed for 2600 students. The high school is one of the five high schools in Montreuil.
Georges Poisson was a French art historian.
Murielle Magellan is a French writer and theater director.
The church of St. Peter and St. Paul, formally the church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul du Haut-Montreuil, is a Roman Catholic church in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. It was the parish church of the royal Château de Vincennes.
Saint-Denis–Pleyel station is a Paris Métro station located in Saint-Denis, in the northern suburbs of Paris. Built as part of the Grand Paris Express project, the station was opened on 24 June 2024 as the terminus of Line 14. In the future, the station will serve the orbital Line 15 and be the terminus of lines 16 and 17. The station is operated by Keolis, which will also operate lines 16 and 17.
The Parc départemental des sports de Marville, commonly called Parc des sports de Marville or just Parc de Marville, is a public sports and leisure complex stretching across the municipalities of La Courneuve and Saint-Denis, France. Activities on offer include various football codes, beach volley, track and field, archery, sport shooting and swimming.
Chasselas de Thomery, also known as Chasselas doré de Fontainebleau, is a Chasselas grape variety grown in the village of Thomery in the Seine-et-Marne region.
The Chemin des Longs Sillons is a group of high walls specific to the commune of Thomery in the Seine-et-Marne region, built in the first third of the 18th century to grow table grapes of a local variety known as “Chasselas de Thomery”. Since 1993, they have been listed as monument historique (MH) in the Seine-et-Marne MH list.
↑ Dufour, Fred (15 October 2023). "Jardins-Patrimoine-Loisirs-Banlieue". Getty Images. AFP. Un personne arrose ses plantations, le 30 juillet 2006 dans un des jardins de Montreuil où l'on cultive des pêchers à proximité d'un mur afin d'en favoriser la pousse. Elle a fait la grandeur de Montreuil jusqu'à Saint-Pétersbourg au 19e siècle: la "Grosse mignonne", pêche à chair blanche, la peau tannée par le soleil, se déguste encore dans les vestiges des murs à pêches. Dans ces jardins agricoles à l'abandon, friche de 38 hectares dans le haut-Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), l'association des murs à pêches (MAP) fait goûter traditionnellement sa récolte le troisième dimanche du mois d'août.
↑ The extraordinary labyrinth of walls led the Prussians to bypass Montreuil during the 1870 siege of Paris.
↑ Devil trellising consisted of a balanced distribution of two carpenter branches, guided at an angle. A peach tree trained in this way could cover up to 12 m of wall and produce 400 kg of fruit.
↑ Palissage à la loque. These strips of fabric, salvaged from craftsmen in the Rue de Paris, were used to secure branches to walls, without the risk of injuring them.
↑ Until the Baltard pavilions at Les Halles de Paris were demolished in the 1970s, one pavilion remained for the Montreuil horticulturists. At the height of production, 600 Montreuil families made a living from horticulture.
↑ In 1936, the Savard family of horticulturists uprooted 700 peach trees from their plots.
↑ Since 1994, this association has been working to preserve this exceptional heritage by replanting the fruit trees, rebuilding the walls, and bringing the site to life.
↑ Two companies involved in the transit and sorting of industrial and construction site waste were forced to vacate the site in the summer of 2008. Source: Marjorie Corcier, "Montreuil: l'entreprise polluante doit quitter les murs à pêches", Le Parisien édition Seine-Saint-Denis, July 18, 2008.
Fruits en majesté, l'histoire du marquage des fruits à la Montreuil. Lume. 2004. ISBN978-2915474046.
Savard, Nicole; Brunet, Jacques; Les Savard (2005). Histoires de vies, 1880-1930, histoire illustrée d'une famille d'horticulteurs de Montreuil. Musée de l'histoire vivante. ISBN9782952541800.
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