Alexandre Gady is professor of art history at Sorbonne University, architecture specialist and honorary president of the association
Sites and Monuments . He recently published Le Val-
de-Grâce , co - written with Claude Mignot, (Éditions de l'Esplanade, 2019, 208 pages, € 49).
What is the difference between moving the Gare du Nord, livening up the streets with ambient agents, replacing the Gare de l'Est with a “Central Park”, planting 170,000 trees in Paris or extending Boulevard Saint- Michel to the sea "in both directions"? Any. All of these proposals are crazy, but the last one is due to a declared humorist, Ferdinand Lop (1891-1974). No matter how well you know, with Beaumarchais, that you must hasten to laugh at everything for fear of crying, it is difficult to get used to this democratic failure: to hear brilliant people promise anything to voters adults, without anyone believing since all this is impossible! Curious ritual, that the current campaign of
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