Peasant Pleasantry: The Urban Shepherds on the Fringe

Guillaume Leterrier and Julie-Lou Dubreuilh are peasants. They wouldn’t mind that title. It’s the definition that they draw on themselves – that a peasant is a person extracting resources from nature, close to his or her habitat, and a peasant, in turn, shapes their environment. That’s what they do. Guillaume and Julie-Lou are urban shepherds–bringing their flock of sheep into Paris and its suburbs.

House pets and city pests make Paris home. Then there’s the waterfowl found in the Bois de Boulogne, the rabbits running freely at Les Invalides, urban foxes in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, exotic beasts at the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes. Why not sheep at the Trocadéro?

The members of Les Bergers Urbains (The Urban Shepherds) are linked by their philosophy that the ecosystem of earth and animal is an important one. Guillaume Leterrier and Julie-Lou Dubreuilh are professional shepherds and lecturers. For more than three years, Guillaume has overseen The Urban Shepherds, developing the project and networking with partners in urban agriculture. His expertise stems from a decade-long career as a consultant for local associations and communities in the “solidarity economy.” Julie-Lou is a trained architect once specializing in urban agriculture infrastructures.

These two shepherds literally take the show on the road, hitting the suburban sidewalks with the flock and connecting the different grazing areas on foot in order to let the sheep practice free grazing. The sheep are well managed in their home meadows of the 450ha Georges Valbon Park, but also manage themselves well while calmly strolling past blocks of apartment, cafes and shopfronts.  The flock makes a great photo op. Curious onlookers stop, laugh, even baa along with the flock. The Urban Shepherds is on the move now with the flock in the autumn of 2020.

Having sheep at the heart of the Paris hasn’t been a regular event since the years before the bustling, open-air market of Les Halles was dismantled in 1971. On occasion, the herd has trotted into the city, but the shepherds usually guide the flock along routes in and around the apartment towers in Aubervilliers, Saint-Denis, La Courneuve, Garges-lès-Gonesse and the territory of Fontenay-sous-Bois, while allowing the sheep to graze on parkland grass and nibble on the scrubland surrounding these densely-packed apartment blocks.

This is all part of the grazing services of Les Bergers Urbains. Based in Aubervilliers, these ‘shepherds on the border’ are a cooperative of professional urban planners, linked by the same values – to introduce rural farm ethics to urban territories. They believe we can make room for animals in our urban spaces and they do just that.

This practice of moving the sheep into the grazing grounds near populated areas, called transhumance, improves the wellbeing of both the sheep and the local inhabitants. For a short while a peaceable kingdom rules tower blocks and industrial sites. Those Paris residents packed into housing estates de-stress at the sight of the flock and passersby are momentarily brought to a calmer place. For some Paris children, these sheep are their first experience with farm animals. Sometimes The Urban Shepherds also offer events and activities such as peasant festivals, or workshops. Co-partners Dubreuilh and Leterrier have an agreement with the local landlords. For these owners, the sheep provide free, sustainable landscaping.

Ironically, Paris is good for the sheep. Most of the fresh food that Parisians once consumed was grown in the periphery of Paris in a fertile area called la Plaine des Vertus – the Plain of Virtues. Today the sheep graze in what remains of this healthy green belt. Chemicals have been banned from Paris’s city gardens for a decade, but as the regulation has not spread outside Paris, the city is still one of the cleanest places in France to cultivate produce. The plants are beneficial for the sheep and therefore the regular outings are good for the health of the flock. The Urban Shepherds are wise to the weeds and plants that grow in the wasteland and how they benefit her herd. Mugwort apparently is a great de-wormer! At their home farm, they raise their flock without using antibiotics and uses farming methods free of chemicals.

The good work The Urban Shepherds do is two-fold because affording grazing space for the sheep is a roundabout way to preserve the green spaces on the edge of Paris. Mayor Anne Hildalgo supports a green revolution, previously pledging in 2016 to cover 250ha of urban space with greenery by 2020. All the Urban Shepherd’s services are carried out with utmost respect for animal welfare, and are complete agreement with all levels of government and veterinary associations.

The wool produced by the sheep, as well as their manure, is put to good use by the Association Clinamen. The Urban Shepherds is a branch of Association Clinamen, an agricultural collective which tends more than one hundred sheep in the 450ha Georges Valbon Park in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve, and in the north campus of the Sorbonne at the 5ha Villetaneuse. Clinamen oversees the rental of agricultural equipment, and the sale of meat and wool from their sheep.

On behalf of Les Bergers Urbains, Guillaume Leterrier is in the early stages of partnership with Enlarge your Paris, an initiative to create environmentally sustainable suburbs for Paris. Together they’re working on establishing a larger migration of the sheep into Paris and its inner suburbs for 2021.

The Urban Shepherds will stay the course moving the flock into Paris in a smaller, more intimate group. They’re on the move now with the sheep. Here’s a calendar of where you might see them in the coming weeks. Their progress can be followed on Twitter here.

Calendar of Sheep Events run by the Les Bergers Urbains