The South-East of the Mulberry trees: between rurality and relaxation
The mulberry tree was planted in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés in the middle of the 19th century for the rearing of silkworms, in order to reduce imports of this precious tissue. The culture collapsed very quickly. A second attempt resumed in the early 1860s… with the same failure. The urbanization of this district, started by Caffin in 1859, is however slow and there are only about twenty «country houses» before the war of 1870. The subdivision continues slowly and, in 1921, there are still many woods and cultivated fields. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that a gradual urbanization of the fields and woods followed by a division of the plots took place. Let’s walk in a rectangle formed by the Marne in the South, the railway in the East, the avenue de Bonneuil in the West and the avenue Denfert-Rochereau in the North. The proposed route allows to understand the history of the district by observing the architecture of its houses, from the «remarkable building» protected by the PLU, to the modest «economic house». The booklet also includes a treasure hunt for children.