The Basses Promenades construction site in Reims is coming to an end.
One of the last stages of the work will start in the coming weeks.
It is a question of carrying out the last plantings there.
In full metamorphosis, this “urban wood” is destined to become the essential trip for Rémois and tourists with its alleys, clearings and edges.
After the Hautes Promenades inaugurated in September 2019, here is Act II for the renovation of the walks.
In total, it is an area of nearly 20 hectares which will be completely returned to the Rémois at the end of the year with the opening of the “Basses Promenades”.
During the last municipal elections, Mayor Arnaud Robinet even made it a “campaign promise” by qualifying this space as “Central Park à la Rémoise”.
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But this is not just any park, it is more than ever rooted in the lives and DNA of the inhabitants.
“It's an old family picture that has always been there.
But this very beautiful site had lost its meaning and its use and it was little frequented ”, details Mikaël Mugnier, landscaper at Atelier Jacqueline Osty and associates.
Partially paved, the place accommodated hundreds of parking spaces but also hundreds of maples and plane trees.
“This place was too precious to remain a parking lot, it was underused even though we are in a hypercentre where there is a lack of green spaces.
And this requalification will bring it back to life with play areas, kiosks, a merry-go-round and water basins ”, rejoices Laure Miller, deputy mayor in charge of ecology.
"It's a real urban wood"
But there was no question of doing just anything in this wooded area, which has been classified since 1932. The site had to preserve the identity of the place and its wooded heritage. “It gives rise to a real metamorphosis of this site which becomes a place of urban life but without distorting it. We already had a very regular forest, a sort of plant nave, underlines Mikaël Mugnier. To restore comfort, we just came to sculpt light and shade. The view must slip away and we must take advantage of the immensity of the space ”. And this is reinforced by the creation of two "glades" of 9000 square meters, still in the forest register. “We tried to create plant dynamics to keep this wild side. It's a bit like forest vegetation, it's a real urban wood that will also have many other uses ”.And the installation of a "basin of mists" equipped with microjets of water, will give a calm and vaporous atmosphere to the site.
"We will have a real effect of urban air conditioning, we go beyond the simple green lung desired", insists the landscaper.
But remember that Reims does not lack green spaces, it has 319 hectares of green spaces including 172 of parks and squares.
But until now, they were unevenly distributed in the city of the Coronations.
And now the hyper-center will no longer be the poor relation.
This urban wood is destined to become the new Reims spot to go green.
