World Art Utopia

L’Oasis d’Aboukir — Patrick Blanc, Paris

Patrick Blanc's vertical garden L'Oasis d'Aboukir covers the tall blind side wall of a corner building in Paris with green, silvery and yellow plants, beside a street tree and above shop fronts, in spring
Artwork FileParis, France

L’Oasis d’Aboukir

SeenMay 2026

Patrick Blanc · 83 rue d’Aboukir, corner of rue des Petits-Carreaux, Paris 2e, France · 2013

Photo: Neoclassicism Enthusiast / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0), dated 21 April 2022 on its file page; full photo, resized. Artwork: Patrick Blanc.

L’Oasis d’Aboukir is a vertical garden by French botanist Patrick Blanc on the blind side wall of a five-story building at the corner of rue d’Aboukir and rue des Petits-Carreaux, in the Sentier district of Paris’s 2nd arrondissement. It was planted in April 2013 and was Blanc’s contribution to Paris Design Week that September. Dezeen reported 7,600 plants on a wall 25 meters high. Blanc calls it a “hymn to biodiversity”, and his own site shows it in May 2026, “13 years after its creation”. Source Source Source Source Source Checked

Seen May 2026: Patrick Blanc’s project page has a photo captioned “Oasis d’Aboukir, vertical garden by Patrick Blanc, 13 years after its creation, May 2026”, and Google Street View imagery from April 2026 shows the wall green from top to bottom above the corner shops. A search on 10 November 2026 found no newer dated evidence and no report of damage or removal. Source Source Checked

More photos

L'Oasis d'Aboukir in late autumn 2014, seen from below: the plant-covered side wall in Paris in dense green, silver and rust-red plants, next to a street tree with yellow leaves
2014 Late autumn, 19 months after plantingPhoto: Victor M. Vicente Selvas / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
L'Oasis d'Aboukir in winter 2015 under a gray sky: the whole side wall of a Paris building covered in dark green ferns, trailing plants and patches of dry brown leaves, with small windows showing through
2015 Midwinter, under a gray skyPhoto: Benoît Prieur / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

💡 5 things to know

  1. From bare wall to green in one spring
    Blanc’s project page logs the wall photo by photo: the bare side wall in June 2012, the structure going up in February 2013, the wall “one week after the plant installation, 14th April 2013”, and again on 5 May, 29 May and 19 June 2013. In his photos the gray felt still shows through in early May; by mid-June the facade is green. Source Checked
  2. Diagonal waves, and a first name
    Dezeen wrote that the wall “appears to grow up the facade in diagonal waves” over what had been a raw concrete facade. On Blanc’s site the final planting plan is captioned “Le Mirage Vert” (The Green Mirage); the finished wall carries the subtitle “Hymne à la Biodiversité” (Hymn to Biodiversity). Source Source Checked
  3. A wall given to the neighborhood
    Paris ZigZag wrote in 2018 that the project was “Initiée conjointement par le propriétaire du 83 rue d’Aboukir et la mairie du 2e arrondissement en 2013” (initiated jointly by the owner of 83 rue d’Aboukir and the town hall of the 2nd arrondissement in 2013). A photo on Blanc’s site shows him with Didier Elbaz in front of the wall on 13 October 2016; its caption calls the wall “offert par Didier Elbaz aux habitants du quartier” (given by Didier Elbaz to the residents of the neighborhood). urbanNext says local businesses sponsored it. Source Source Source Reported
  4. Watered every four hours
    Paris ZigZag (2023) credits the wall’s lasting lushness to “un arrosage automatique toutes les quatre heures et un élagage annuel” (automatic watering every four hours and a yearly pruning). Blanc’s site follows it through the seasons, with Fuchsia regia “still blooming in early December 2023”. Source Source Reported
  5. Wonder at first sight
    In an interview on 12 June 2017, Blanc said: “La façon dont est perçue l’oasis d’Aboukir montre toujours une sorte d’émerveillement dans le regard de ceux qui voient ce mur pour la première fois.” (The way the Oasis d’Aboukir is perceived always shows a kind of wonder in the eyes of those who see this wall for the first time.) The interview is in the annexes of Xavier Lagurgue’s 2020 thesis at Université Paris Nanterre. Source Checked

📍 Where it is

On the blind side wall of the corner building where rue d’Aboukir meets rue des Petits-Carreaux, in Paris’s 2nd arrondissement, above the shops at street level. Lonely Planet and the Paris tourist office give 83 rue d’Aboukir; Paris ZigZag gives 40 rue des Petits-Carreaux. The map point is the coordinate on the wall’s Wikimedia Commons category; OpenStreetMap puts no. 83 about 10 meters away. The button opens Google Street View (April 2026) facing the wall. Source Source Source Source Source Checked

Open in Maps

🗓️ Sightings

  1. 201314 Apr

    One week after planting · Blanc’s site

  2. 20132 Sep

    New living wall reported · France Today

  3. 20138 Sep

    Opening set for Paris Design Week · Dezeen

  4. 201423 Nov

    Late-autumn photo · Commons

  5. 20155 Jan

    Winter photo · Commons

  6. 201613 Oct

    Blanc and Didier Elbaz at the wall · Blanc’s site

  7. 202221 Apr

    Spring photo · Commons

  8. 202322 Sep

    Guide: it covers the whole facade · Paris ZigZag

  9. 2026Apr

    Street View imagery · Google

  10. 2026May

    13 years after its creation · Blanc’s site

Green stamps mark dated photographs; amber stamps mark records or reports; red stamps mark loss. Publication dates are not camera dates. Dates on Blanc’s photos are the dates in his captions; the 2022 Commons photo is dated on its file page, without camera data.

✅ The facts

Artist
Patrick Blanc, French botanist and researcher (at the CNRS, according to Paris ZigZag) Source Source Source Checked
Title
L’Oasis d’Aboukir, Hymne à la Biodiversité (The Oasis of Aboukir, Hymn to Biodiversity); the planting plan is captioned “Le Mirage Vert” Source Source Checked
Year
2013; planted in April (Blanc’s photo of 14 April 2013 is captioned one week after the plant installation) Source Source Checked
Event
Paris Design Week 2013 (9–15 September); official opening announced for Tuesday 10 September Source Source Source Checked
Initiated by
The owner of 83 rue d’Aboukir with the 2nd arrondissement town hall, according to Paris ZigZag; Blanc’s site says Didier Elbaz gave the wall to the neighborhood’s residents Source Source Reported
Location
Corner of rue d’Aboukir and rue des Petits-Carreaux, 83 rue d’Aboukir, Paris 2e Source Source Source Source Checked
Wall
Blind side wall (mur pignon) of a five-story building Source Source Source Checked
Surface
About 250 m² (Greenroofs.com gives 251 m²) Source Source Source Checked
Plants
About 7,600 (the Paris tourist office says 7,000) Source Source Source Source Source Source Checked
Species
237 on Blanc’s own project page and in Dezeen, Lonely Planet, Paris ZigZag, the Paris tourist office and Greenroofs.com; France Today says 250. We follow 237, the figure on the artist’s own page. Source Source Source Conflicting
Time to green
Seven weeks to grow (Modernism.ro, 2013) or “sept semaines pour réaliser” (seven weeks to make it; Paris ZigZag, 2018), about six weeks to complete (Greenroofs.com), against “trois mois” before the gray wall was “entièrement recouvert” (three months before it was fully covered; Paris ZigZag, 2023). We lean to the shorter figure: Blanc’s dated photos show the facade largely green by 29 May 2013, about seven weeks after planting. Source Source Source Source Source Conflicting
Care
Automatic watering every four hours and a yearly pruning, according to Paris ZigZag Source Reported
Status
Seen May 2026 in a dated photo on Blanc’s project page; green in Google Street View imagery of April 2026 Source Source Checked

🔗 Related

All sources & image credits

Last checked: 10 November 2026. How we verify art