Will the future see flocks of sheep baaing beneath the Eiffel Tower and bleating by Notre Dame cathedral?

Paris is enlisting a few hungry sheep to keep the city's grass trim, replacing petrol-guzzling lawnmowers.

Natural lawnmovers: Sylvain Girard, owner of "Ecomouton" shows his flock used to graze the lawns in replacement of lawn mowers around a truck warehouse at Evry, south of Paris. Credit:AP

The initiative, which started this week, sees four sheep from an island in Brittany put to work munching the grass at the Paris Archives.

The eco-experiment, which could expand around the capital from October, follows a stint last year by two goats the Louvre hired to mow the lawn of Paris' Tuileries gardens.

"(It's) efficient ... and cheap," says Paris City Hall’s Fabienne Giboudeaux.

"I can imagine this very easily in London. And New York ... even Tokyo."

AP