Madame Butterfly makes room for bees

Paris's two main opera houses also happen to be home to bees. In 1983 beekeeper and props man Jean Paucton was granted permission to put his bees aloft in the Palais Garnier while he moved home. They did so well, they stayed and now and their produce is on sale in the souvenir shop. Beehives were also later located on top of the Bastille Opera House and the idea is catching on:

... with the support of the culture ministry and Paris City Hall, [Olivier] Darne [another Parisian beekeeper] is now working on seeing more beehives installed around Paris, including a permanent &;ldquo;wall of honey” in the Marais district in the heart of the capital next spring.

... other French cities such as Toulouse and Nantes also in the process of setting up urban beekeeping.