After Euro 2016, 5 months of work and 500,000 euros to rehabilitate the Champ de Mars – Le Figaro

Competition Football, which took place from 10 June to 10 July, has not spared the lawn of Champ de Mars. Until December imposing work is planned to refurbish it.

This is not an invasion of moles that transformed lawns of the Champ de Mars in tilth but the Euro 2016 football. If the public has good memories of the sporting event and its Parisian Fan Zone at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, the turf of Mars has suffered him …

For more a month it found itself stifled by wood chips, trampled by thousands of people and now there is almost nothing left lawns. Soil that is only the land now resembles a plowed field. While all lawns aisles will be replaced, the mayor of Paris has decided to take this rehabilitation to change the automatic sprinkler system, buried in the ground.

500,000 euros work

“For sure, it’s Verdun! We need to trench to replace the sprinkler system, then the earth also come fill the holes, finally a new turf will be in place, “said Thursday Olivier, gardener for the City of Paris at the microphone France Bleu. This important work should last until the end of December – almost five months – and will cost 500,000 euros. Despite this considerable amount, the mayor of Paris sees this work as a “positive legacy” of the Euro. “It’s been a long time that the grass had not been redone. This event has given us the opportunity, “says the Le Figaro Penelope Komites, Assistant to the Mayor for the Green Spaces, Nature, Biodiversity and funeral affairs.

However, this work disturb the town hall of the seventh arrondissement. “The damage was predictable in advance and luckily there was the establishment of this envelope of € 500,000 for works. But for tourism these months of renovations will be pretty terrible. This is a handicap for this site which is classified but the Paris City Council uses to organize events, “explains Philippe Valli, Chief of Staff of the seventh arrondissement town hall, joined by Le Figaro.

A legal remedies

notice that the association “friends of the Champ de Mars” sharing. She campaigned for several months for the cancellation of events to be held in this symbolic place in Paris. According to its Secretary General, Bernard Seydoux, the association has the intention to file an appeal against the municipality before the Administrative Court of Paris, for there to be fewer commercial purpose events. An action that would be supported by the Mayor of the seventh. “In 2014, the site was occupied 220 days on that account 365 a year, and in 2016 there were a total of deprivation of Mars for nearly two months. This landmark is not used by the city of Paris as it should be initially, “continues Bernard Seydoux.

For his part the mayor of Paris said its commitments. “You must not exaggerate. There are also events that are allowed by the town hall of the seventh arrondissement. The Champ de Mars is a symbolic place of the city, which has the ability to host major events, “said Penelope Komites. “We have committed to a work set a new master plan for the Champ de Mars there about a year with Friends of the Champ de Mars. But this park does not organize events is not possible. ”

By winter, the land will be returned completely and ventilated before the new grass is planted in October. For neighborhood regulars and tourists will need to be patient before they again lie or walk on the lawns of the Champ de Mars.