Introducing Green Factory: A Gorgeous Terrarium Shop in Paris

Tucked away next to the popular brunch spot Holybelly in Paris’ 11th arrondissement is a store known as Green Factory— a space dedicated to producing innovative, one-of-a-kind terrariums. We stumbled across it accidentally, after putting a name on the list next door and deciding to wander around the neighborhood to pass the hour-long wait.

Glass terrariums line the walls of the shop, which encircle a huge wooden table covered in mason jars, glass tubes, soil, and succulents. We spoke with Noam Levy, the Star Wars-loving owner, while she broke down boxes as we explored the store. Levy fell in love with plants and started Atelier Green Factory in 2009, moving into the current space earlier this year. The shop grew out of an attempt to satisfy this generation of urban dwellers’ need for green– to please people who grew up valuing the natural world and who weren’t willing to sacrifice it just because they live in a city.

Terrariums are an easy, clean way to bring plants into the home, apartment, or office, and in a city where style reigns, they’re a chic, favorable option. Part of what attracted Levy to the terrarium, she explained, was that it’s a small, self-sustaining ecosystem. The trees inside dominate the landscape, as they do in real life; she tries to mimic life in her art, but in miniature. Each terrarium is different, but all are hand-selected and hand-made. Noam herself rocks a red lip and a sixties playlist, bringing an element of rock n’ roll to her little store. And for the people who want to go a step further, she sells her own make-at-home terrarium kits, labelled with instructions for convenience. By the time we left Green Factory, we had almost forgotten about brunch. 45 minutes goes by pretty quickly when you’re busy discovering hidden treasure.