Eiffel Tower car-free zone?Locals boycott Paris mayor’s grand plans

The Eiffel Tower is one of the most popular monuments in the world.

Paris:

Removing cars from the clearing surrounding the Eiffel Tower to create a greenway sounds pretty good on paper, but Paris’s mayor is trying to win over residents, especially the police force, to transform one of the city’s most famous features .

Thousands of tourists every day rush to photograph the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero hill across the Seine, with its magnificent gardens and modernist palaces housing museums.

However, walking to Trocadéro is less romantic, requiring crossing two major crossroads and the often traffic-choked Pont de Iena.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo met with widespread surprise this week when she said she wanted to move forward with a project that would eliminate cars and create a continuous garden between the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadéro promenade.

But while she hopes to use the 2024 Summer Olympics as an opportunity to launch the project immediately after the Games, her critics – notably the Paris police chief – are resisting the plan.

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

Three Japanese tourists, taking photos next to the busy Jena Bridge, agreed the scheme would make a difference.

Mahiro told AFP the view was “disappointing” and said “the fewer cars there are, the more beautiful the view”.

“Pedestrian friendly”

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

But Hidalgo announced similar plans in January to ban half of the central Place de la Concorde, home to the iconic Luxor Obelisk, to cars, hoping Olympic enthusiasm would build support for the ambitious project. .

“After the Olympics, there will no longer be cars passing by the Eiffel Tower,” Hidalgo said in an interview with France Ouest newspaper published on Tuesday.

A “green” Trocadero, a “pedestrian-friendly” Pont du Jena and a “reforested” Champ de Mars, with vast lawns in the shadow of the towers, “will together form a large park in the heart of Paris,” she says.

Supporters applaud former presidential candidate Hidalgo’s efforts to reduce pollution and increase green areas in the densely populated city, which can become unbearable when increasingly frequent summer heat waves hit.

In her first term, Hidalgo scored her biggest urbanization victory with the pedestrianization of the Seine’s right bank embankment after a two-year battle.

But the Trocadero project was rejected by the Administrative Court in 2022 and 2023, with the mayor’s office admitting that the original project was destined not to be implemented.

Hidalgo has submitted a “revised” plan to police in the hope that preparations before the Olympics will provide a new window of opportunity.

‘many questions’

France’s new right-wing Culture Minister Rachida Dati, a bitter enemy of Hidalgo who has said she will run for Paris mayor in 2026, called the new plan a “coup.”

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez maintained the government’s opposition, saying “many questions remain… on several issues”.

In May 2022, his predecessor Lallement said he was concerned “significant traffic delays” and “obstructions” would slow emergency services response times.

Everton, a Brazilian photographer who has lived in France for 15 years, said he was worried about how Hidalgo’s plans would affect Paris commuters.

“It will clog bridges and someone will need to drive in Paris,” he told AFP. “I think we need to do something, but it’s important not to go too far.”

Police authorities said they were willing to review new proposals promised by the mayor’s office.

The Eiffel Tower is one of the world’s most popular monuments, visited by 6.3 million tourists last year.

Some 15 million visitors are expected to attend the Olympics in July and August and the Paralympics in August and early September.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)