The town hall of Paris wants to pedestrianize the bottom of the Champs-Elysées on Sundays

The mayor of Paris has asked the police headquarters to cut traffic on Sundays in the lower part of the avenue des Champs-Elysées in order to reconcile Parisians with less frequented gardens.

The city "wishes to pedestrianize every Sunday" the eastern part of the famous artery, "the first step to magnify the gardens" and participate in the "reconquest of the Place de la Concorde and the bottom of the Champs-Elysées", indicated to the AFP the deputy (PS and related) to green spaces Christophe Najdovski.

The town hall has already made its request to the prefecture, he said.

The Champs-Elysées are reserved for pedestrians on the first Sunday of each month.

The revaluation of the public gardens designed in the 2024th century by André Le Nôtre and bordering the Elysée is part of a first renovation plan for the district announced in May by the PS mayor Anne Hidalgo in view of the XNUMX Olympic Games.

This plan also includes the reduction of the place of the car on the Place de l'Etoile.

His deputies kicked off the work on Thursday morning by welcoming a barge on the port of the Champs-Elysées carrying part of the 14.000 m2 of granite planned to redo the sidewalks of the avenue, which are now very degraded.

Four years after the demonstrations of "yellow vests" marked by scenes of vandalism, the works must make it possible "to welcome with dignity the hundreds of thousands of people who walk there every day", underlined the mayor (LR) of the VIIIth arrondissement. Joan of Hauteserre.

According to Marc-Antoine Jamet, president of the Champs-Elysées Committee, which brings together the economic actors of the district, 250.000 people frequent "the most beautiful avenue in the world" every day, the vacancy of the signs "reducing".

In addition to the repair of the sidewalks and street furniture, which have been suffering since the "yellow vests", "we plant 107 trees and we cut and revegetate one hectare", with three minor axes at the bottom of the avenue "transformed into landscaped paths" and , "on the upper part of the Champs, 400 feet of vegetated trees", recalled Mr. Najdovski to AFP.

Around the Arc de Triomphe, the expansion of the pedestrian ring will be done via limestone bollards placed 10 m wide "to neutralize the three closest lines of cars", said the deputy (PCF) to the public construction Jacques Baudrier.

This initial work, for which the town hall is committing around thirty million euros, must be completed at the end of 2023.