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PortuguêsThe Story of Cedre Imperial Meudon
Two centuries of French history told through a single tree — and through the unbroken chain of people who passed its legend on.
Contents
Eight chapters, two centuries
Each chapter stands on its own, but together they tell a single story: that of a tale handed from one person to the next since the Empire.
Cedre Imperial, a gift from Empress Joséphine
A gift from Joséphine
The Imperial Cedar, Eugénie and Victoria: the birth of a myth
Eugénie and Victoria
Cedre Imperial Meudon: the Russians, the Romanovs and Coco Chanel
The Romanovs and Coco Chanel
The Resistance, where a story between a secret agent and Joe Kennedy Jr began
The Resistance and Joe Kennedy Jr
Cedre Imperial Meudon, VisitParis07.com and Phone Book of the World
VisitParis07 and Phone Book of the World
A cedar threatened by a development project: the mayor listens to a local movement
The 2021 development project
Hundreds of children draw the Imperial Cedar
The children’s drawings
Heatwaves of 2026: the concrete slab puts the tree in danger
Heatwaves and concrete
Why this story matters
A tree is not only a living organism: it is a fixed point in the landscape, around which generations come and go. The Imperial Cedar has watched its street change name four times, seen an empire fall twice, and watched Paris fill with rooftops and then with a tower of iron.
Some of what follows belongs to oral tradition, and we present it as such — not as settled history, but as a memory handed down, with its embellishments and its gaps. That transmission is precisely what gives the tree its value: it shows that for two hundred years, people have cared enough to keep it standing.
The same chain is what protects it today.