Pictured here is Denis Loubaton, who founded the Jardins du Ruisseau near Porte de Clignancourt in 1998. The gardens opened in 2004 on the site of the disaffected railway La Petite Ceinture. The festival Clignancourt Danse sur les Rails takes place at the venue, with dance and street arts showcased. The gardens are open to the visitors on Saturday afternoons (details correct in June 2022). Visitors can come and learn about the site, ask questions of the friendly volunteers, and read some of the informational signage. Across the tracks is the ferme urbaine of La Recyclerie (the picture windows of the Recyclerie café-cantine in the old train station can be seen in the image), but both entities are entirely separate.

It currently costs 15-20 euro to be a member of these gardens. This gives the privilege of visiting the gardens during a long opening period (approximately normal public park opening hours). None of the parcelles are private, as the principle is to garden collectively. Schools and associations have a claim to some of the approximately 5 metre x 3 metre raised beds, while others are worked by groups of individuals, who share out the tasks such as watering, sowing and pruning.

The gardens are involved in the development nearby of a vertical greenhouse that will turn to follow the sun ("un serre vertical et rotatif"). This will be used to benefit people on the margins of society, for example those suffering from mental or social distress, or homeless people. The odd looking but “architectural” tubes in one of the pictures are full of plastic bottle caps, which are collected to make money for an association that sells them on for recycling.

Localgrowplanet particularly loved the slate artfully propped against one of the trees, reading “Avant Gardeners”!