Blaise Pascale is a square for everyone. After its recent renovation, Squaire Blaise Pascal in Versailles celebrated an opening event in partnership with, "A Playful City" and the City of Versailles. The event was designed to be inclusive inviting citizens to come together, connect and play. 

A Playful City" is a not-for-profit, founded in 2017, to provide co-created solutions for cities and towns. A diverse team creates individual places and events for inhabitants. For GoGreenRoutes, the organisation is hosting six events in the GoGreenroutes Cultivating Cities. The aim is to promote these new spaces, and show different games to encourage people to further use the area. It is also an opportunity to celebrate and share the successes of the implemented NbS, and raise awareness of the GoGreenRoutes' project.

After the team set up games, a tent and colorful pyramids displaying information about the project, people started accessing the Square at 2:30 pm. A brief introduction started at 3 pm, welcoming the visitors and explaining the event. Despite the rain, the attendees were eager to play on the new playground as well as to use the games provided by "A Playful City". Small groups of children quickly formed through their individual choice of games. One group, for example, chose to toss big rings. Others, including Cathy Biass-Morin, the Director of Green Spaces at Versailles, chose skipping ropes to jump together. Historic games like kubb, which is a viking game, or boule, were set up.

The children were also invited to make a wish at a wishing tree. Ribbons were handed out to attach them to the tree as a symbol of each individual wish. Additionally, the team organised a "Colour Scavenger Hunt", where participants were invited to take a magnifying glass and find natural materials in the park that match the shown color. Proudly, the children met under the tent to show their collected leaves and flowers representing each of the colors. All in all, the event showed that given an inclusive and flexible environment, people of all age groups and backgrounds can find their own preferred form of play and interaction with one another in nature. 

After supporting the completion of the NbS intervention in April 2024, RWTH Aachen University partners conducted focus group discussions during the opening events in June 2024, as in the other five Cultivating Cities. These discussions aimed to understand how city residents perceived the project's entire process—from the beginning, through the experimental Seedbed interventions, to the final NBS interventions—and to gather their feedback on the outcomes. In September 2024, during the Playful City initiative, RWTH partners held another round of focus group discussions to assess how the first summer with the NBS intervention unfolded. The results of these discussions will soon be available in the Story Book on the project website. During the event, RWTH Aachen University also reconnected with several participants from the focus group discussions held in Versailles in June. These participants were eager to share their thoughts on the implementation process and how the site had been used over the course of the summer.

The event ended early due to weather conditions. However, it was great watching the children using the space and bringing the Square Blaise Pascal to life. The event "A Playful City" demonstrated how the Nature-based Solutions (NbS) site in Versailles can be even further activated and promoted through community-oriented activities. 

Stay tuned for upcoming collaborations with GoGreenRoutes Cultivating Cities and “A Playful City”!