CORINNE Moncelli offers guests at her Eiffel Park Hotel more than a view of the Paris landmark. She serves them honey from bees she keeps on the rooftop.
There are more than 300 known colonies in the French capital, up from about 250 five years ago, the national beekeepers' association says. Hives have appeared on the roof of the Opera Garnier, on balconies and in parks.
Bees are thriving in cities because "flowers and plants are changed constantly and there aren't pesticides," said Moncelli, 47, who co-owns the hotel with her husband Pascal.
The success of a three-year-old French program to encourage beekeeping in cities, the largest such project in the world, is sparking hope of a revival among their country cousins, according to Bloomberg News.
Global agriculture valued at 153 billion euros (US$226 billion) relies on pollination by bees, says France's National Institute of Agricultural Research, or INRA.
As in the United States and United Kingdom, where bee colonies are dying, about 300,000 to 400,000 French hives disappeared every year between 1995 and 2007, victims of pesticides, pollution and disease.
"We need bees in the countryside," said Henri Clement, president of the Paris-based National Apiculture Association, which ran the project. "The potential of cities is limited. Our operation in the city is one of creating awareness."
The Eiffel Park Hotel began beekeeping three years ago, turning one of its terraces into a site for two to three hives, which produce 150 kilograms (331 pounds) of honey a year. The hotel gives honey out as gifts and serves it at breakfast.
"We say 'close the jars when you're done and avoid wearing lots of perfume or the bees may think you're a big flower,'" Moncelli said.
Paucton's city hives produce 450 kilograms of honey a year. He sells little jars of it to the Opera House gift shop for about 4 euros, which are resold for 14.50 euros. Paucton, 75, said losses in the countryside can be as much as 50 percent, while the number in the city doesn't even approach 5 percent. Some years, he doesn't lose any in the city, he said.
"The harvest is worse and worse in the countryside," he said. "There aren't farmers anymore. There are only agricultural companies and they use pesticides."
His experience is mirrored by that of Michele Bonnefond and Armand Malvezin, beekeepers who maintain the Eiffel Park Hotel's hives. The couple also keeps hives in Correze, one of France's most rural regions and there have been bigger losses there.
On a recent weekday, they sprayed smoke on the hotel terrace to calm the bees before extracting honey. They scraped a layer of wax off the honeycombs, placing it in a centrifuge machine, catching the honey that flew against the sides of the machine, through a faucet into jars. They said they don't obtain such rich supplies from their Correze hives.
The apiculture association has called on the French government to block the use in the country of some pesticides, which it says harms bees. Like with its city project, it is also encouraging more people to keep bees in rural areas.