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ENVIRONMENT

A car-free Eiffel Tower zone? Paris mayor faces pushback

Removing cars from an expanse around the Eiffel Tower to create a green pathway sounds pretty good on paper, but the mayor of Paris is struggling to win over residents and above all the police force to revamp one of the city's most celebrated views.

A car-free Eiffel Tower zone? Paris mayor faces pushback
Pedestrians walk in front of the Eiffel tower, in Paris on December 5, 2023. Photo: MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP.

Thousands of tourists jostle every day to snap the Eiffel Tower from across the River Seine on the hill at Trocadero, with its magnificent gardens and a modernist palace housing museums. Walking to Trocadero is less romantic, however, requiring the crossing of two major intersections and the often traffic-clogged Pont d’Iena bridge.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo said to general surprise this week that she wants to push ahead with a project to kick out the cars and create a continuous garden between the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadero esplanade. But while she hopes to take advantage of the 2024 Summer Olympics to begin the project as soon as the Games end, her critics — and most importantly the Paris police chief — are resisting the plan.

The proposal is in keeping with other efforts by the Socialist mayor to squeeze cars out of Paris and make the city greener, a push that has divided residents and political opponents who say her policies go too far.

A trio of Japanese tourists taking photos next to the busy Pont d’Iena bridge agreed that the plan would make a difference.

The view was “disappointing”, Mahiro told AFP, saying the vista would be “more beautiful with less cars”.

‘Pedestrian-friendly’

Hidalgo launched the project in 2019 but soon clashed with the city’s police chief at the time, Didier Lallement, and right-wing mayors of three of the city’s districts over concerns about traffic disruptions.

But Hidalgo, who announced a similar plan in January to ban cars on half of the central Place de la Concorde, site of the iconic Luxor Obelisk, is hoping the fervour of the Olympics will garner support for the ambitious project.

“After the Olympic Games, there will no longer be cars passing in front of the Eiffel Tower,” Hidalgo said in an interview with the Ouest-France newspaper published on Tuesday. A “green” Trocadero, a “pedestrian-friendly” Iena bridge and a “reforested” Champ-de-Mars, the expansive lawn in the shadow of the Tower, “will all
together form a large park in the heart of Paris”, she said.

Supporters have lauded the efforts by Hidalgo, a former presidential candidate, to reduce pollution and increase green areas in the densely populated city, which can become unbearable when increasingly frequent summer heatwaves hit.

During her first term in office, Hidalgo scored her biggest urbanisation win with the pedestrianisation of the embankment on the right bank of the Seine after a two-year battle.

But the Trocadero project was rejected by an administrative court in 2022 and 2023, and the mayor’s office acknowledged that the initial project was not destined to be implemented.

Hidalgo has submitted a “modified” plan to the police authorities, hoping the preparations ahead of the Olympics would provide a new window of opportunity.

‘Many questions’

France’s new right-wing Culture Minister Rachida Dati, an arch-foe of Hidalgo who says she will run for Paris mayor in 2026, branded the new plan a “coup”.

And Paris police chief Laurent Nunez maintained his administration’s opposition, saying “there remain many questions… on several points”.

In May 2022, his predecessor Lallement said he feared “significant traffic delays” and “hold-ups” that would slow down response times for emergency services.

Everton, a Brazilian photographer who has been living in France for 15 years, said he was worried about how Hidalgo’s plan would impact commuters in Paris.

“That’s going to block the bridge and there are people who need to drive in Paris,” he told AFP. “I believe we need to do something, but it’s important not to go overboard.”

Police authorities have said they are open to reviewing the new proposal promised by the mayor’s office. The Eiffel Tower is one of the most popular monuments in the world, with 6.3 million tourists visiting last year.

Around 15 million visitors are expected for the Olympics in July and August, and the Paralympics in August and early September.

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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

No French fries but lots of lentils for Paris Olympic athletes

There will be no French fries but plenty of lentils on offer to athletes attending the Paris Olympics, with organisers unveiling a Games’ menu that combines eco-minded recipes with French gastronomy.

No French fries but lots of lentils for Paris Olympic athletes

The 3,300-seat restaurant at the Paris Olympic village, which will welcome athletes next month, was given its first test-run on Tuesday by a hungry crowd of sports figures, officials and journalists.

Based in a vast former power station, the food hall includes six dining areas offering meals from around the globe, with half of the 50 dishes available each day being 100 percent vegetarian.

“People are going to meet here in France, with its culture, its heritage but also its gastronomy and so there are expectations,” chief Paris 2024 organiser Tony Estanguet told reporters.

Although many athletes would stick to their usual nutrition before competing, they will also be offered the chance to discover France’s famed food, with several Michelin-starred chefs taken on as advisors.

“We’ve allowed ourselves to put French gastronomy in pride of place so that curious athletes from around the world can try French culinary excellence,” Estanguet added.

The giant warm-food buffets will not include French fries, however.

McDonalds, a long-time Olympics sponsor, had its own fast-food restaurant in the Olympic village until the Rio Olympics in 2016, but athletes wanting a hit of junk food will have to look elsewhere.

“For technical reasons, we can’t offer fries,” said Estelle Lamotte, deputy director of village catering at food group Sodexo, told reporters.

She explained deep-fat fryers were not allowed in the temporary kitchens at the site, which is usually used as a film studio.

Gregoire Bechu, head of sustainable food at the Paris organising committee, stressed the quality of the ‘delicious’ lentil dahl recipe that has been developed for athletes.

“One of the major commitments by Paris 2024 was offering vegetarian meals in order to halve the carbon footprint of each meal on average,” he said. “We wanted vegetarian meals everywhere.”

At sports venues, 60 percent of food offered to fans will be vegetarian and the temporary stadium hosting skateboarding, BMX and breakdancing at the Place de la Concorde in central Paris will be entirely meat-free.

In a further bid to lower carbon emissions, only two of the six restaurant areas at the village will be air-conditioned, with the rest in outdoor courtyards sheltered by fabric sun shades and ventilated with overhead fans.

Tuesday’s test event, held under fierce sunshine and in 27C heat, saw some people visibly sweating.

“I think we’ve found a good compromise between offering the right temperature but also reducing our carbon emissions,” Estanguet said. “It’s one of the main challenges of the Paris 2024 edition.”

In a break from Olympic tradition, the 2,800 apartments at the village do not come with air-conditioning as standard.

But many Olympic teams have decided to install portable coolers at their own cost.

Paris has suffered a number of record heatwaves in recent years with temperatures peaking above 40C in July and August, but 2024 has so far been wet and cool.

The Paris Olympics run from July 26th to August 11th, followed by the Paralympics from August 28th to September 8th.

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