Offbeat | Wild truffle grows on Paris rooftop, in scientific mystery

Urban scientists and Paris foodies are getting excited about a bizarre discovery atop a hotel near the Eiffel Tower: the first-ever wild truffle growing in the French capital.

It’s just one 25-gram winter truffle. But truffles normally sprout only in limited areas of southern Europe, and are so rare that the most prized versions can sell for thousands of euros per kilogram.

The National Museum of National History, which confirmed the discovery last week, called it a “beautiful example” of environmental benefits of rooftop gardens sprouting across Paris and other cities.

Urban ecology researcher Frederic Madre described on France-Info television finding the mushroom beneath a hornbeam tree at the Mercure Paris Centre hotel.

This truffle was donated to science — but the hotel is already hoping to be able to offer homegrown truffles to diners someday.