After 14 years at the head of the Champs-Elysées committee, Jean-Noël Reinhardt gave way, this Wednesday afternoon, to Marc-Antoine Jamet.
At 62, the general secretary of the LVMH group (also owner of Le Parisien), was unanimously appointed by the 180 members of the committee.
Director of the committee for ten years, he will now have the heavy responsibility of launching the renovation of the legendary avenue of the capital, in the 8th arrondissement.
What is your link with the avenue des Champs-Elysées?
MARC-ANTOINE JAMET.
I'm Parisian.
I am the general secretary of the LVMH group
(Editor's note: which has eight brands on the avenue: Guerlain, Bulgari, Dior clothing, Vuitton, Tag-Heuer, Dior parfum, Sephora, Tiffany)
and I love the Champs-Elysées.
It was therefore necessary to go to the committee which is the interface between Paris, Parisians, attractiveness in the world, economic and commercial.
Jean-Noël Reinhardt has succeeded in making the committee a real actor, a real tool, a real instrument at the service of the city, brands and visitors.
I enter quietly in this landscape.
And you, what your personal relationship with this avenue?
Everyone has memories there, wandered there.
I watched, as a child, all the parades of July 14th.
I remember the bicentenary.
From the Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, it remains a place of curiosity and encounters, an avenue of culture, fashion houses, sports brands, beauty and architecture.
Something is happening at all times on the Champs-Elysées.
It is the diversity of the Champs-Elysées, its attractiveness and its richness that fascinates me.
Jean-Noël Reinhardt leaves you a vast renovation project.
Do you fully assume it to implement it?
I don't have to assume it.
This project is essential.
Paris cannot have the most beautiful avenue in the world without at the same time evolving, transforming, modernizing.
The number of digital services that are not yet on the avenue is numerous.
We must change the view of the car and the pedestrians.
This avenue must follow its time.
She must take advantage of what the world can bring her that is beautiful and keep the tradition that she offers to the world.
The avenue has already evolved quite a bit… Towards luxury in particular?
Luxury is the French, European art of living.
On an avenue known throughout the world as being the architectural quintessence of a European city, it seems to me quite normal that we find there those who are today the ambassadors of France and of Europe in the world. entire: exhibitions, fashion, great restaurants and places to waste your time.
It must be the avenue you want to see when coming from Tokyo, Beijing or Delhi.
It must amaze and surprise them… Just as much as the Parisians themselves.
To re-enchant the Champs is to make different desires coexist.
Not to be a showcase avenue.
And not a forgotten avenue either.
For lack of tourists, the suburbs took their marks at the end of the day.
Will Parisians be able to come back too?
The creation of the RER, the transport networks have transformed the situation.
The avenue has become the heart of a globalized world.
It is normal that globalization begins at the borders of Paris.
It is normal for the avenue to be open to everyone.
What concerns us is that out of 100 people, there are only three or four Parisians walking there for no reason.
There should be at least 25 ...
What is your priority for the Champs?
It is to hear each of those who make the Champs-Elysées, the big museums, the big brands, the big institutions… I should also introduce myself to the municipal authorities.
Then implement the traditional subjects: re-enchantment, illuminations, pedestrian Sundays ...
Now that you are “the boss” of Les Champs, do you see her differently?
I already had an eye for lampposts, benches and garbage cans… But there is no greater pleasure than dreaming with architects, landscapers and imagining what the Champs-Elysées could be in ten years.
