Traveling vegetable garden, giant snail, laurel wreaths on their heads ... the demonstrators showed originality to "warn about the sacking of Seine-Saint-Denis in the name of the Olympic Games".
For Ginette, 83, "the garden allows you to breathe, to relax". She has owned a plot of land for 35 years which allows her to "grow fruits and vegetables". With a straw hat on her head and a Venetian mask on her face, this elegant "gardener in struggle" believes that there is already "not enough green space".
The 2,5 hectares (25.000m2) of Vertus d'Aubervilliers workers' gardens, located less than 4 km north of Paris, constitute an enclave of greenery.
These gardens will be reduced by nearly 4.000 m2 in a few weeks for the construction of the future aquatic center, used as a training center for the Olympic Games, but also for the creation of a solarium and other leisure facilities.
"We want apples and not a solarium", protests Dolores Mijatovic of the Collectives of the workers' gardens of Aubervilliers who filed an appeal against the local urban plan.
"We need a swimming pool but we could build it differently, not in place of the gardens," said Julie, a resident of Aubervilliers.
The "Destruction" and "No to the Paris-2024 Olympics" banners mingled with the LFI, EELV or Generations flags.
The deputy LFI of Seine-Saint-Denis Bastien Lachaud as well as other political figures of the left and environmentalists came to give their support.
The gathering which began in front of the town hall of Aubervilliers ended with a human chain around the allotment gardens and then with a giant picnic.