As we mentioned yesterday, the bees from the Eiffel Park Hotel are now back in their woodland retreat. Here are some photos of the move, and a film of their first outing in the country…

photos : Bart Omeo


Just a quick look at us getting the beehives down from the roof and off to the countryside. Alain Bisotti of the HPRG management and Christophe of the Eiffel Park Hôtel helped Armand out, and the whole event was watched by some our guests !





And here they are back in the countryside. Check out the film of their first flight!

More photos here on Flickr.

Our bees have been working hard all summer, but why have we harvested the honey already? Read on…

photos : Bart Omeo


Yesterday we harvested the honey from the roof of the Eiffel Park Hôtel. For the third year running, journalists and hotel guests gathered to see exactly how it’s organised.

The day before, our bee-keepers Armand and Michelle came and installed a filter on each hive that allow the bees to go down to the bottom but not come back up. This allows each section of the hive to be emptied of bees before the harvest. Of course there’s always a few clever ones that don’t fall for it! As soon as this bee understood what was going on, she tried to get back to the honey and consume what was left…

With all but a few of the bees safely tucked into one section of each hive, we separated each level and taped them up to stop anything from being wasted.


The managerof the Hôtel de la Sorbonne bravely helped out too!

Back downstairs, in the hotel breakfast room, Michelle got back into her everyday clothes and gets ready to show us how the honey is extracted.

After removing a thin layer of wax from both sides, the racks are put into a centrifuge, and the honey literally spins out of them. This makes for some very pretty and strange photos…

Check out our little film of the centrifuging process below. Michelle explains that after being spun on one side, the racks are only half empty and need to be turned over and spun again. There are usually six racks spun at a time, but for demonstration purposes she shows us just three…

The smell that comes from the machine is wonderful, and as you might have guessed it creates quite a lot of wind and noise too!

So why was the harvest done in August this year and not in September as usual? Well, the hives were put up on the roof a little late this year because of bad weather (it was too cold and wet before). This meant that there was less food to be had. In fact, there is already very little food left for our bees, so little in fact that – attracted by the sugar – they started to go into a local bakery. Obviously we couldn’t let them bother out neighbours, so the harvest had to be done straight away. Now you know!

It looks like there will be about 70kg of honey this year, which sounds a lot, but it’s only half last year’s harvest. The bees are now off to their winter retreat in the country and we should be seeing them again next spring.

Just kidding, it’s the bees again…

photos : jasonw


We are very lucky to have a lot of our hotels just next to the Jardin du Luxembourg. With the Hôtel du Panthéon, Hôtel des Grands Hommes and Hôtel de la Sorbonne on one side, and the Jardin de l’Odéon and Hôtel Ferrandi on the other, you’re never far from the calm of the gardens. (Poor old Eiffel Park Hôtel has to make do with the Champ de Mars, the gardens near that big brown pointy metal thing…). However, it’s not just plants, flowers and trees; there’s also the beekeeping school (you know we’re fans of bees).

Even in the hot weather, the bee keeping lessons continue. The school was founded w-a-y back in 1856 in order to teach modern methods of beekeeping and protect bees from extinction. However, the late 20th Century found the hives in a poor state of repair and in 1990 the Senate – whose building is in the Jardin du Luxembourg – decided that action had to be taken. Their architect, Monsieur Jacques Patureau, designed a new hexagonal (!) spot for the hives and the beekeeping school was launched once again to great success.

Here’s a photo of the old-style hives that can be seen if you go to the Jardin du Luxembourg, and another photo of a lesson taking place. At the bottom of this article you’ll find the map showing where to find the hives in the large gardens. If you want to sign up for lessons, you’ll have to be patient; 2008 is already full, and enrolment for 2009 doesn’t open until September…

And of course you can learn more about our very own beehives here.

photo taken from the site of La Société Centrale d’Apiculture

Bigger map here

For the third year running, we’ve installed three beehives on the roof of the Eiffel Park Hôtel. Take a look at our photo gallery of them settling in…

all photos: jasonw. Full Flickr gallery here


Not many people in Paris have bees on their roof. Not many hotels in Paris sell the honey they make themselves. Gee, I guess that’s yet another thing that makes the Hôtels Paris Rive Gauche group so super special It would also explain why a national radio and TV crew were up on the fifth floor of the Eiffel Park Hôtel yesterday in full bee gear, interviewing our two lovely beekeepers, Michelle and Armand.

Last year there had been some unseasonably warm weather that made a lot of trees flower early – before we installed the hives – and there was some concern that the bees wouldn’t have enough to eat, but this year the weather has been fine for them, and the installation process went well too; no-one got stung!

The bees will now quietly buzz about their business until the harvest in September. Michelle & Armand will be coming back from time to time to make sure that they are all OK, and also to add extra racks to the hive for the honey.

Here are a few photos of everything being set up. The full Flickr gallery can be seen here. If you want to check out our article about last year’s honey harvest, click here.













The full Flickr gallery can be seen here.

You probably know that we really loves bees and honey (we even make out own), so here’s some really good news for us…

photo : Sumisu Yoshi

On the 18th March 2008, the Paris ‘conseil régional’ (local council) installed eight new hives in garden on the Left Bank. They have been split between Invalides, Babylone and Vanneau. The idea is to help preserve these creatures, increasingly menaced by modern pesticides. 30% of the bee population has died every year since 1995, and 15,000 beekepers have had to change jobs in the last ten years.

We think that installing more beehives in the city is a great move, and hopefully we’ll be going to see them soon!

You can read about our honey harvest here.

I know, we keep going on about it, but we do really love bees…!



We’ve been following Bee Movie for a while now. They just keep releasing trailers for it, and as we’re mad about bees, we just can’t help telling you about them.

After a pretty good spoof called Dolbee Digital, trailer number four has just been released. There’s some new stuff in there that we hadn’t seen in the previous trailers, and we laughed a lot!

Check out the sweet new goodness here, or have a look at the official site here.

Bee Movie is released 2nd November in the USA, 12th December in France, 14th December in the UK.

Obviously, I don’t need to remind you about our own bees…

After the honey harvest last week, they are now kicking back in the French countryside!



And so they should, after a whole summer working hard at honey-making!

Not far from Paris, our beekeepers Michelle and Armand have bought some woodland so that the bees can rest up and get ready for next year.

View Larger Map

And here’s a short film of when we released them into the countryside just after the journey. The bees rush out of the hive and start to get their bearings…

See you next year bees!

Our trusty bee-keepers Michelle & Armand helped us out once again for the 2nd annual honey harvest at the Eiffel Park Hotel


It looks like a bumper crop of honey this year, despite pretty awful weather in early summer…

Check out our delicious photos here. They came out rather well, I think.

Check out one of our little films below. A couple more, including the spectacular centrifuging of the honey racks, can be found here.

Don’t forget, the honey made by our bees is served at breakfast at the Eiffel Park Hotel, and a few pots are on sale as well, including a special limited edition pot in a hand crocheted bag.

If you’re staying at the hotel, ask at reception and they’ll be pleased to help.

Don’t forget to check out our photos here!