Work on the memorial garden began in September and should be completed in spring 2025, the year which will mark ten years since the November 13 attacks, which left 130 victims in Paris and Saint-Denis.
“An oasis of calm and relief in homage to life and resilience.” This is how the city of Paris describes the future memorial garden for the victims of the November 13 attacks, work on which began in September, after a first phase of preparatory sanitation work.
The place of contemplation should open to the public in 2025, ten years after the attacks which left 130 victims and hundreds injured at the Bataclan and in Saint-Denis. In the meantime, the work is accompanied by an exhibition on the creation of this garden of memory.
Stelae with the names of the victims
Place Saint-Gervais, located near Paris City Hall, was chosen to host this garden because of its centrality. If the square is not one of the sites affected by the attacks of November 13, the city, accompanied by the victims' associations Life for Paris and 13Onze15, wanted a neutral place.
“Its neutrality and its centrality in Paris allow the memorial and commemorative vocation to come to life,” explains the city of Paris on its site.
The different sites targeted on the evening of November 13 will however be represented in the garden. “The landscaping represents the sites of the attacks and allows walking and contemplation within this garden. The names of the deceased victims will appear on steles symbolizing each place affected (Le Stade de France, Le Carillon/Le petit Cambodge, La Bonne Bière/Le Casa Nostra, La Belle team, Le Comptoir Voltaire, Le Bataclan)”, explains historian Jean-Marc Dreyfus for the city of Paris.
Stelae, lit at nightfall, will display the names of the 130 victims. The symbolism of the resilience desired by the city of Paris will also be represented through two trees: the elm of Saint-Gervais, which sits on the square and where justice was administered in the Middle Ages, and the olive tree, symbol of peace.
A foreshadowing already visible
The development of this garden was awarded, after a call for projects, to the landscape agency Wagon Landscaping. But students from the École du Breuil, the horticulture school of the city of Paris, will also make their contribution by adding plantings in a section of the garden.
A small part of what the place will look like has also been created, life-size, in the garden of the École du Breuil, located in the 12th arrondissement. This prefiguration shows in particular a prototype of the paths, steles and plants which will be installed at Place Saint-Gervais. This prefiguration is open to all, during the opening hours of the school garden.
Finally, the garden is intended to be evolving and dynamic, with plant diversity to follow the seasons and promote biodiversity.
“In the fall, for example, Christmas roses, cyclamen, anemones and dogwood fruits will allow you to escape a little from the flowers that we are used to having in the month of November,” explains Mathieu Gontier for the city of Paris. , landscaper at Wagon Landscaping.
A public meeting was held in 2022 to present the project to the general public, after which the Life for Paris association indicated that the inauguration was hoped for November 13, 2025.
Djena Tsimba with Laurène Rocheteau
