It's an unusual legacy from the 1970s in the Paris region. In the landscape of the town of Créteil, located east of Paris in the Val-de-Marne (94), stands out a group ofstrange buildings, large white columns adorned with petals whose shape can evoke that of an ear of corn, a pine cone, a beehive or even a cauliflower. They are the famous Choux de Créteil, an unusual architecture that has become quite symbolic of the town.
Designed by architect Gérard Grandval, les Choux de Créteil were built between 1969 and 1974. Listed as a 20th-century heritage site, they stand on the site of a huge sauerkraut factory, which could have inspired this astonishing architecture.
A total of 10 14-storey round towers have been erected around boulevard Pablo Picasso, not far from Lac de Créteil. These are complemented by a six-storey ring-shaped building. Originally, the petals serving as balconies were to have been planted, but this was refused by the developer. Today, a quarter of the apartments in the large central cabbage are devoted to student residences, the site being quite close to the Université Paris-Est Créteil.
