Imagine a garden, tucked between the railway lines and the motorway, just a stone’s throw from the city centre of Marseille. This community garden is about more than just collective gardening. Le Talus defines itself as a third place, and is anchored in this very special territory. It acts as a link between residents, associations, schools, local authorities and businesses. Its main focus? Transitions. 

In fact, it makes little sense to consider the ecological transition in isolation, as it raises so many questions about the way we live, work, interact and participate in civic life.

To promote this movement through tangible action, Le Talus is experimenting with a number of activities based on:

- agroecology;

- sustainable food;

- environmental education; 

- reuse;

- socio-cultural activities; 

- community dynamics.

For example, users can rent a vegetable plot, use one of the residence areas, taste plant-based recipes or attend a concert.

Since its creation in 2018, the team at Le Talus has continued to grow and restructure, and now has 10 employees and 5,500 members. The team is open to initiatives in Marseille and further afield, and was excited to meet similar structures based in Rome (summer 2022) and Madrid (summer 2024). The association applied for Erasmus+ funding for “Adult Education Mobility”.

For an insight into this original project, EPALE France presents an interview with its administrative and financial manager Hippolyte Le Bougnec. These discussions are illustrated by photos of the garden and the people involved in the project.

© Luce Ringette

Interview with Hippolyte Le Bougnec, Administrative and Financial Manager at Le Talus

EPALE France: Hello Hippolyte, could you introduce yourself? What made you want to join Heko Farm association?

I joined Le Talus 3 years ago, following a Master 2 in Innovation Management at La Sorbonne (University of Paris 1). I started as a civic service volunteer before being taken on as administrative and financial manager.

Ever since I turned 18, I’ve had a fascination with third places and other associative spaces, which create links within their local area, promote ecological, social and civic transitions and connect their users and beneficiaries through the idea of doing things together.

My father is from Marseille, so I wanted to live in Marseille and join the Heko Farm association, which has been running the third place, Le Talus, in Marseille for over 6 years.

Le Talus, close to the railway lines and Air Bel district, © Jean-Marie Muggianu

What does the name “Le Talus” refer to? How did the project come about? What are its main values?

Le Talus refers to the land on which our project is set up. It slopes gently from the railway line to Rue Saint Pierre, the French word talus referring to an embankment or raised piece of land. The project grew out of the co-founders’ desire to create a showcase for transitions. The aim was to create links between nature and culture by cultivating a collaborative garden space, and to bring to life socio-cultural dynamics to encourage people to become indirectly aware of the environment. The garden is located near the Air Bel district, an underprivileged “Politique de la Ville” district (benefiting from specific funding). From the outset, we wanted to include all sections of the public in the project, especially disadvantaged groups, and to encourage their participation.

For example, for several years now we’ve been working with the Air Bel primary school, with classes that visit the garden 6 or 8 times a year. In the process, the children learn how ecosystems work, how to look after nature in the city and how keep up an educational garden. And they in turn educate their parents! 

What are the main activities carried out?

Le Talus is a place for experimentation! And we have done a lot of experimentation! 

Le Talus currently runs six operational programmes to create links between the various users, residents, local authorities and associations in the area. 

We are a community-run third place dedicated to raising awareness of the environment through a number of themes (sustainable food, agroecology, reuse), promoting local culture and stimulating local dynamics. 

We organise cultural events, community days, participatory working sessions and educational workshops to bring the third place users together and create common ground around which they can rally.

You can drop in at Le Talus to take part in participatory building projects, do some gardening, look after the chickens, grab a bite to eat or relax on the sofa, grow your own vegetable patch, celebrate by attending a concert or performance, cook a locavore meal, take part in an educational workshop and much more.

We are in the process of setting up new channels of exchange to bring stakeholders together and enable them to participate in decision-making about the way the site operates.

You wanted to find other sources of inspiration, in France and in Europe, particularly through the Erasmus+ programme. You went on a mobility trip to Rome in 2022, then to Madrid in 2024. What are the main things you learned from this experience?

The Erasmus+ trips were an opportunity to discover other educational models for the ecological transition, project management, hosting the public and integrating disadvantaged audiences. 

In Rome, in 2022, we focused on models for organisations involved in experimentation and raising awareness of agroecology in the city.  25 members of the team spent 7 days meeting our partner: the Zappata Romana association, which runs the Hortus Urbis shared garden. They took us on a tour of other venues that shared common issues, such as growing crops with little or no water (in a Mediterranean context), and being located in an ultra-urban environment. We also came away with some participatory management methods for our cultural space and an open-minded approach to ways of involving the public. 

In Madrid this summer, we defined a number of best practices to foster links with all those involved in Le Talus - particularly the residents of the “Politique de la Ville” neighbourhoods - using educational and socio-cultural activities. The general public in Spain gets particularly involved, with many self-managed projects. Thanks to our main partner Naturbana, we were able to visit five locations. Not all of them were directly linked to agroecology, as we wanted to learn about other aspects. We paid particular attention to the way they host the public, especially disadvantaged audiences. Visits to the Esta es Una Plaza garden and the Matadero Cultural and Contemporary Art Centre were particularly inspiring in their unconditional openness.

Erasmus+ mobilities : Madrid (left) and Rome (right) © Le Talus

In Madrid, you experimented with a collective intelligence method to report on your respective field visits and exchanges. Can you tell us more?

To capitalise on our experience and visits to the various structures, we ended our trip with a collective intelligence exercise based on the codes of consent voting.  The idea was to move away from the logic of the majority (divisive by nature) and move towards a model of cooperation, where consensus prevails. 

To prepare for this exercise, each participant in the trip was assigned to a group whose role was to summarise the daily visits and highlight the key ideas and practices of the sites observed. Each group had to present a good practice that could be applied at Le Talus. The aim was then for the wider group to add to the proposal (through amendments of sorts) in order to modify the good practice so that it suited the whole group, with a view to trialling it at Le Talus.

How did you choose the partners you worked with in Rome and Madrid?

We chose our main partners using the directory of platforms with an OID code on the European Union platform. For the other visits, we worked with our main partner to draw up a programme of activities in line with educational objectives of the trip. 

We would like to repeat these European experiences, with Erasmus+, to find out about initiatives in Berlin, Barcelona and Copenhagen. The challenge is to be able to get to these places without taking a plane!

© Le Talus

The theme of the next annual conference of Erasmus+ France Education / Formation is: ‘Building a sustainable future together’. How do you see Le Talus in 2050?

That’s a difficult question! I imagine Le Talus in two ways: 

• an emblematic third place in the Marseille area, perpetuated by the institutions and spearheading the ecological, social and civic transitions in Marseille by helping people to make a difference at their own level.
• a third place that is self-managed by local residents and serving as a place of refuge for biodiversity and serenity. 

See more photos of the garden on the Le Talus website

See the activity report produced following the mobility trip to Rome

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