- The Champs-Elysées Committee, a meeting of economic and cultural players, is carrying out a project to renovate the "most beautiful avenue in the world".
- This Tuesday morning, the five main candidates for mayor of Paris came to defend their vision of the Champs-Elysées.
- Their interventions were imprecise to say the least, but the members of the Committee were pleased that the candidates had appropriated the project.
What if the road to the Town Hall passed by the Elysée? This is in any case what the Champs-Elysées Committee hopes, which gathered this Tuesday morning in a magnificent neo-classical Pavilion of the Champs for an "electoral morning" the five main candidates for municipal elections, or almost. Because if Cédric Villani, Benjamin Griveaux and David Belliard made the trip, Anne Hidalgo and Rachida Dati were worn pale and replaced by their campaign directors, respectively, Jean-Louis Missika and Nelly Garnier.
To prepare this great raout, the committee, which brings together the economic and cultural players of the avenue and ensures the promotion of the Champs Elysées, has put the small dishes in the big ones. Preliminary project on the Champs in 2024 presented last spring, forum published in Le Monde , project by the architect Chiambaretta presented to the various candidates and announcement of a citizen consultation on the future of the Champs coupled with an exhibition at the Pavillon de l 'Arsenal.
Villani without net and it showed
And it is Cédric Villani who attacks, with ten minutes of delay, which allows the president of the Committee, Jean-Noël Reinhardt, to deliver a short introductory speech briefly presenting the renovation project estimated at 150-200 million euros. The mathematician intervenes without notes but perhaps he should have had them. After a short lecture on his commitment to Paris, Cédric Villani ends by assuring that "Fields, emblematic, are the pride of Paris but are also the symbol of the invasion of tourism in Paris", and that he wants to make it " a place of proximity where one feels good ”. Nice but we are still looking for the start of a proposal. And his generous manner hides badly that his answers to very specific questions on the Fields remain too elusive. At the very least he assures that the Committee's project "is fully in line with the ecological project he will carry for Paris". It's already that.
Griveaux and its little jokes
Now we have Benjamin Griveaux, who also arrives without notes, without much more concrete proposals but at least he focuses his remarks on the question of the Champs-Elysées. "The project carried by the committee is part of this project of breathing the city and re-appropriating the city that we carry", assures the candidate LREM, who tries to charm his very entrepreneurial audience with a pro-business speech and jokes well felt - "The great sacrifice of the mandate is the pedestrian because the mayor of Paris does not like walkers". He adds that "tourists are important but there are also Parisians, and it is they who will give back its soul to the Champs. Asked about his first measure for the district, he wanted to "enhance the existing by redeveloping the gardens of the Fields". A proposal brought by the Committee.
Haro on the car for Belliard
Then comes David Belliard, whom Jean-Noël Reinhardt announces to be happy to meet because "between the Champs-Elysées and the Greens, there is a form of ideological distance". An atypical remark approved by the green candidate: “We have to open up areas of debate with certain actors that we were not used to meeting, because we cannot change the city without them. However, the candidate for the Greens is also struggling to get to the heart of the matter and remains on the presentation of his project for Paris, embellished with digressions on fires in Australia or plastic pollution of the oceans. It is only when questioned by the audience that he clarifies his thought. So his first decision for the Champs would be to "rethink the traffic pattern in order to restore space for pedestrians and reduce the space devoted to private cars", the hobby of Parisian ecologists. He nevertheless believes that "pedestrianizing all of the Fields is not realistic". Unless France wins the next Euro.
The right remains blurred
Obviously, Nelly Garnier, the campaign director of Rachida Dati, was not present during the presentation of the committee's project to candidate LR. His presentation speech covers the main themes of the right - security, family cleanliness, reasoned ecology - but hardly addresses the question of the Champs-Elysées even if Nelly Garnier is "very supportive of the committee's approach". Fortunately the questions reframe the debates. Well almost, since from the first question, it deviates to Parisian parks before ensuring that "we are not one district rather than another". We won't know much more.
Missika on familiar ground
Jean-Louis Missika comes as a regular - we give him "Jean-Louis" - to close this "electoral morning". Like his predecessors, he promoted the balance sheet and the program of his candidate but very quickly entered the heart of the matter and displayed a mastery of the subject made possible by his eleven years in the Parisian municipality. It promises a transformation of "Place de l'Etoile and Concorde into vast pedestrian areas in order to create a real promenade along the Champs-Elysées". The gardens "which are in a difficult state must be a priority in terms of planning," he adds. And when asked why the municipality did not act sooner, he did not hesitate to discard the prefecture of police or the architect of buildings in France, especially on the bicycle path project in the center of the Avenue. But above all Jean-Louis Missika suggests that the town hall could finance a third of the Committee's project, news that does not leave Jean-Noël Reinhardt indifferent, the latter welcoming an "extremely precise intervention".
Despite the vagueness of certain interventions, the members of the Committee were quite satisfied with this morning. "What is interesting is that all the candidates share the diagnosis, the need to do something for the Champs because it's been 30 years that nothing has happened, so that's a positive point, rejoices Eric Costa, president of Citynove Asset Management. They "take ownership of the main lines of the project, including the redevelopment of the gardens," he said. “We don't want to reinvent the Champs-Elysées, adds Eric Donnet, CEO of Groupama Immobilier, we want to re-enchant them through three dimensions, an ecological dimension on which the candidates all seem to agree, an economic dimension that is too much early on, and a societal dimension where there are different visions according to political colors. For Eric Costa, the next step, "is to work with the winning team to fine-tune a schedule." And above all to agree on the funding, thorny question but which fortunately is not for now.
Paris
Champs-Elysées: Decide on the future of the most beautiful avenue in the world
- municipal
- Champs Elysees
- Paris