Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris will become an “extraordinary garden”
The “most beautiful avenue in the world” – the famed Avenue des Champs-Élysées – is not seen as beautiful to many Parisians. They view it as an overcrowded tourist attraction that is now drab and unexciting.
According to the architects commissioned to revamp the Avenue, out of the estimated 100,000 pedestrians who visit the Avenue each day, about 72% are tourists and 22% work there. That means that only 6% of Parisians visit the Avenue each day.
The Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said that plans have been approved to radically transform the Avenue des Champs-Élysées into an “extraordinary garden”.
The €200 million renovation will turn roads into green spaces with more room for pedestrians, and trees planted to improve air quality, while the space for vehicles will be reduced by half.
Environmental and urban planning activists have campaigned for the project for years, arguing that mass retail stores, overpriced cafés, and constant traffic have turned the Avenue into a bland and noisy district shunned by Parisians.
The first stage of the renovation is expected to be completed in time for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, with the remaining work to be carried out by 2030.
