Hello everyone, I am Audrey Martineau,
Gardener and florist, I founded Maÿ , a small flower garden center in Bayonne bringing together a selection of local plants, French flowers, pots, vases, bulk potting soil...
Today, I dedicate a large part of my daily life to my shop, to the flowers and plants found there, ensuring that they are as close as possible to local production.
My eco-responsible commitment, I owe it to a trigger, an awareness: I had this project of opening a store like this for several years, but after a long trip to South America, I questioned myself on the origin of these plants and flowers that I was going to sell.
I then became aware of the market: “In France, 85% of flowers/plants sold are imported. They are often massively processed, but also extremely energy consuming: either they grow in open fields in countries located below the equator (Kenya, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Colombia), or they come from Holland and are almost systematically seasonally adjusted, growing in heated and lit greenhouses. »
I then put at the heart of Maÿ all the necessary efforts to promote local or French production as much as possible while respecting seasonality.
In this sense, I contribute to the development of the French flower collective, I work on a daily basis with associations such as Biodivercité in Biarritz, Les Géniés Verts in the Basque Country, Les Carioles Vertes and above all many small local producers.
The way I perceive the world around me and interact with others has been heavily influenced by travel.
In my opinion, they carry powerful reflections on the world as a whole but also often on our lives, by appropriateness, on our personal and professional projects.
Especially, when we travel to countries less developed than those in which we grew up, which confront us with other social and economic realities.
Since we're focusing on travel, let me tell you an anecdote;
During this trip, I found myself volunteering on a micro-farm in Panama, on a tiny island where there was more lush flora and fauna than inhabitants. Surrounded by the jungle, we tried to grow bananas, pineapples, herbs, sunny vegetables…
Every day, we cooked what the garden offered us.
Their objective tended towards self-sufficiency in all its facets (water, electricity, food, etc.)
Cooking time was an important moment, a ritual, a meditation with nature. And for each meal, we kept all the seeds from all the foods.
Simply this little habit that is quite easy to implement made me question it for a long time, I wondered why we didn't do it in France.
I understood later that we were not taking the time (not to mention the problem of the non-reproduction of many seeds on our plates).
I like to think that the desire to support noble causes is contagious. So if I had to give advice to those who have not yet taken the plunge;
France is surely one of the only countries in Europe capable of producing flowers/plants without heating all year round, so I admit that I do not understand why we import Hydrangeas from Colombia.
I sometimes wonder how we got to this point... We're not going to lie, imported flowers and plants are big consumers of carbon.
So I think it's everyone's responsibility to question the origins and conditions of production of what we consume.
Come discover his world:
Instagram @mayjardinerie
MAŸ - Florist Garden Center
24 rue Sainte-Catherine, 64100 Bayonne
