Patrick Blanc, creator of Vertical Gardens, a system of growing plants without soil, is dressed from head to toe as a jolly green giant. “I’ve looked like this for the last 30 years,” he admits, running long fingernails through leaf-green highlighted hair. “I used to get strange looks, but everyone’s into wacky colour now.”

We sit in Les Ombres, the roof-top restaurant at the Jean Nouvel-designed Quai Branly museum in Paris. Located opposite the Eiffel Tower, Branly was commissioned by Jacques Chirac to showcase the indigenous arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. Blanc’s vertical garden, covering the museum’s administrative buildings and theatre, is visible in the distance. We order lunch. “No water for me, that’s for the plants,” he tells the waiter. “I’d love a bottle of Meursault please.”