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EnglishMeudon · 6.6 km from the Eiffel Tower
The Imperial Cedar
Near the Paris Eiffel Tower lives a magical cedar tree, surrounded by a legend: that it gives good energy to those who come to it. Today the sealed ground around it stops it drinking.
The legend
A tree born under the Empire
In 1799 Joséphine de Beauharnais acquired the Château de Malmaison and became fascinated by the cedar of Lebanon, a tree that can live more than five hundred years. Several cedars were planted around 1800 — among them the one still standing on the heights of Meudon, in what was then called rue Napoléon.
A legend has followed it ever since: that the tree transmits good energy. Empress Eugénie came to meditate beside it. One evening in 1855 she showed it to her friend Queen Victoria, and the two women put their arms around the trunk to absorb its energy. The story passed on to the Romanov children, and later to Coco Chanel.
- Joséphine
- Eugénie
- Queen Victoria
- Romanovs
- Coco Chanel
The 7 chapters
Two centuries, seven stories
From Joséphine's Malmaison to today's campaign, the story of the Imperial Cedar reads like a novel.
A tree drying out
Together, let's protect the Imperial Cedar
The felling was stopped in 2021, and there is no petition running today. But the ground around the tree has been sealed: rainwater no longer reaches its roots. It is a slow threat, invisible for years, and making it known is what matters now.
🌱 Help the treeWhat is happening below the surface
30 to 60 cm
is the depth at which the roots that feed the tree live. An impermeable surface deprives them of water and air, and the decline takes ten to twenty years to become visible. 🌱 Understand and helpGallery & videos
The Cedar in pictures
Timelapses at sunrise and sunset, interviews and encounters around the tree.
Sunrise over the Cedar
0:58 · Timelapse — dawn from the heights of Meudon.
Nightfall
0:59 · Timelapse — dusk and the lights of Paris.
With Bruno Solo and Monsieur Kader
6:30 · An encounter at the foot of the tree.
Slideshow
Two centuries in images
The people, the places and the views that make up the story of the Imperial Cedar.
