During our week in Paris we met up with a couple of friends and went out for dinner or had after-work drinks. With Oskar, who I met during my time at UC Berkeley and who later replaced me as Theresa’s other house mate, we explored multiple museums - like the Austrian embassy, Petit Palais, and the residence of the préfet of Île-de-France. As we had the 17th September, aka heritage day, all the national museums were open to the public (still, expect long queues and/or pre-registrations).

Later that day, Oskar took me to some get-together aka soiree at one of his friend’s place, while Theresa headed to a huge swing dancing event. We played a game - similar to truth or dare - where everyone wrote questions and dares on paper scraps and threw them into a bowl. The bowl was then passed around and people had to read out loud what was written on it and answer the question/dare, e.g. “Which 3 characteristics about person XXX do you value most?”. I was surprised how thoughtful but also entertaining it became and can highly recommend playing these games with your friends too.

Jennifer Herner

The highlight of my week was our visit to the UNESCO building to meet Hélène Sobral from the startup Noocity. The startup has made it their mission to equip homes and companies with everything that’s required to set up vegetable gardens. Company gardens are not only a great way to spread awareness for local and seasonal fruits and vegetables, but are also an amazing opportunity for team building events, as nature naturally recharges our mental batteries and provides room for creative thinking.

Noocity’s cooperation with UNESCO started 2 years ago – one day before the COVID lockdown. They set up multiple growbeds in the middle of the UNESCO grounds for all the employees to access freely. The startup additionally provides workshops to UNESCO employees to educate them about gardening (e.g. teaching them how they can set up their own vegetable gardens at home). At least 200 UNESCO employees are enthusiastic about this offering as they exchange tips and tricks with their co-workers on Whatsapp or attend gardening events regularly. You might wonder what happens to the yield of these corporate gardens? They’re distributed and sold to the employees who signed up for a vegetable bag. Every two weeks they can pick up a bag with a variety of seasonal herbs, fruits and vegetables that grew just right in front of their eyes. I was allowed to stay at UNESCO the whole day and talk to the employees who came by to pick up their vegetable bags. They were all highly thankful for their company garden and hope that more companies will pick up on this trend.

Jennifer Herner