on foot, bicycle, rollerblade or scooter … but certainly not in the car! This Sunday, for travel on the Champs Elysees, it will happen to any motor vehicle. The prestigious track will be a pedestrian all day. “The opportunity for Parisians and visitors to reappropriate the most beautiful avenue in the world,” enthuses Anne Hidalgo, mayor (PS) from the capital, which will officially kick off this Sunday at 1 pedestrian day 11 h 45 from the top of the Champs.
The Avenue will be closed to traffic from the Place de la Concorde to the intersection with the Avenue George V, or 1, 6 km from bitumen reserved for the walk. The auto traffic remain authorized to Concord and the roundabout l’Etoile. Exceptionally, the “pedestrianization” operation will begin at noon (morning being reserved for commemorative ceremonies May 8 at the Arc de Triomphe) and will end at 20 hours.
device had already been tested (successfully) in June 2015 and Sunday, September 27, 2015, as part of the “car-free day”. Last February, the elected representatives of Paris Council decided to turn the experiment in order and to “offer” the Champs pedestrians 1 st Sunday of each month. A date chosen to coincide with the museum free day.
The pedestrianization “inaugural”, originally scheduled for 1 st May, was postponed for a week because of understaffing in the ranks of municipal officials and the police headquarters in this Sunday and “protest”. Even before its implementation, the decision very consensual, pedestrianization of Sunday is already welcomed by all.
Including the Champs-Elysées Committee (bringing together nearly 200 stores Avenue) that n is not far to claim authorship of the initiative. “The idea was raised in 2014 at a symposium on the future of the avenue,” says Edouard Lefebvre, general delegate of the Committee. “The survey that we conducted on this occasion showed that only 23% of visitors come to the Champs shopping. Others seek above all a place to walk. This is also why André Le Notre designed the Champs Elysees, there are nearly four centuries, “he said.
A must for tourists (less for Parisians ), the prestigious avenue hosts an average of 300,000 visitors per day, up 600,000 from pedestrians during the holiday season … and maybe even more on Sunday.
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