Jonathan Siksou is a journalist and writer. He notably contributes to the magazine Causeur. Latest work published:
Capitale
, Éditions du Cerf, 2021.
In "Mens-Womens mode d'emploi" (1996), Claude Lelouch has one of his actresses say:
"A real Parisian goes to the Champs-Élysées at least once a week."
If that was not already very true at the end of the 20th century, it is no longer so at all in this first quarter of the 21st.
The explanation is to be sought on the side of the municipal negligence for twenty years, Anne Hidalgo only plowing in depth the furrows traced by her predecessor Bertrand Delanoë.
The calamitous management of the capital fuels scandals: town planning, ecology, social housing, traffic, heritage, dirtiness, insecurity… The first victims are first Parisians and Ile-de-France residents, then passing visitors and tourists.
The deplorable state of the Champs-de-Mars was recently highlighted by the development projects around the Eiffel Tower for the 2024 Olympics. A new file which proves that the
Hôtel de Ville draws no lessons from anything and thinks it can still ransack Paris and its history with impunity.
The electoral slap that Anne Hidalgo has just taken in the presidential elections has not brought her back down to earth.
And since she made the organization of the Games a personal matter, we are entitled to expect the worst.
Even guided by the best will in the world, Anne Hidalgo will not be able, in two years, to modify new customs and repair the outrages of twenty years of abandonment.
Jonathan Siskou
With its above-ground rhetoric and its verbose dialect to which it has accustomed us to assert its doctrinaire ideology, the Town Hall wishes to
"re-enchant the Champs-Élysées"
, is the name of the project, to make us forget that the breakthrough designed by Le Nôtre in the 17th century has become the dustbin on the avenue du monde.
The Olympics would therefore be the occasion for a major cleaning.
Anne Hidalgo is not responsible for the state of decrepitude in which this avenue finds itself today, but she has done nothing, since she is "in charge", to fix anything.
It is so far only responsible for one thing, in this corner of the 8th arrondissement: the replacement of the sober and delicate fountains in crystal ears which adorned the four corners of the Rond-Point, by giant taps due to the brothers Bouroullec.
This assumed good taste can be found at the bottom of the avenue, on the Cours-la-Reine side, where she planted the “Bouquet of tulips” by Jeff Koons.
Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, launched an ambitious campaign to redevelop the avenue in the early 1990s.
Removal of driveways for cars, paving of gray granite sidewalks, new street furniture, etc.
Since that time, nothing, strictly nothing has been done by the various city councilors of the capital.
In addition to this culpable negligence, this east-west axis, long accustomed only to parades on July 14, is now the scene of regular and hyperviolent demonstrations, from "yellow vests" to football supporters who set fire to and loot everything in their path, whatever whatever the match and whatever the result.
Breaking waves facilitated by the RER node at the Charles-de-Gaulle-Étoile station.
These repeated degradations to which are added the overflowing garbage cans and the
anomie that governs the streets of Paris (café terraces – the growing privatization of public space is another scandal –, bicycles, scooters, begging in organized gangs, etc.) complete the portrait that can be painted of the Champs-Élysées current.
Also, even guided by the best will in the world, Anne Hidalgo will not be able, in two years, to modify new customs and repair the outrages of twenty years of abandonment.
If the mayor of Paris has the right to bet on the calming of the world, it has, above all, the duty to protect and preserve the heritage of our capital.
Jonathan Siskou
Upset by its empty coffers, the town hall is revising its ambitions downwards, but its redevelopment project is spread over several years.
From 2022, repairs to the paving and other additional pedestrianization works have been undertaken – in particular the narrowing of traffic around the Arc de Triomphe – as well as
“the revegetation of the feet of trees
”
.
In Hidalguian idiom, this means allowing wild vegetation to grow.
It is also a way of justifying the absence of any weeding in many districts of Paris, and the pure and simple removal of the grids which help in the maintenance of public space.
Judging by the views of the architectural firm that phosphorus on this project, the Champs-Élysées of tomorrow will be a vast sunny alley, punctuated by café terraces planted in the middle of green squares, like enchanting meadows – you can almost hear the song of the birds.
These images, perfectly in tune with the magical world in which the mayor of Paris and her team are determined to want to live – Anne Hidalgo does not hesitate to speak of
an “extraordinary garden” –
, are the opposite of the daily reality of Parisians and millions of visitors who (re) come from all over the world.
But so much poetry will perhaps end up making thugs, vandals and other litter throwers aware of the beauty of Creation.
Read alsoChamp-de-Mars: “Contrary to what it claims, the town hall of Paris is anything but environmentalist”
If the town hall of Paris has the right to bet on the calming of the world, it has, above all, the duty to protect and preserve the heritage of our capital, heritage of the history of France.
However, for the second phase of the redevelopment of the Champs-Élysées, the Place de la Concorde constitutes
"an obstacle"
[sic], according to Philippe Chiambaretta, the architect who is piloting the project.
To prepare the spirits of sorrow – those lovers of old stones attached to the testimonies of centuries – for the pseudo-vegetation of the square, he evokes the need to create a
“continuity”
between the Tuileries gardens and that of the Champs-Élysées with plantations of trees and
"contemporary kiosks affordable for all, and which would promote positive food for the climate"
[re-sic].
We can trust this man, a brilliant technician, who also distinguished himself in the concretization of the La Défense district.
To oblivion, the monumental minerality of the 18th century;
in oblivion, the theatricality of the facades of Gabriel which frame the rue Royale;
forgotten, the unique perspective of the Madeleine at the Bourbon Palace in the center of which stands the solitary Obelisk.
The most beautiful square in the world, urban par excellence, is precisely highlighted by the foliage of the Tuileries gardens and the Champs-Élysées.
The rectangle of this square is set in greenery like a precious stone set in its setting.
It's not a
"barrier"
, it's a hyphen that allows us to understand this perspective imagined, and maintained, by the greatest landscape painters in history.
Understand how the Louvre Palace, then that of the Tuileries, looked towards the setting sun.
How far will we allow ignorance and incompetence?
These 2024 Games have not finished being the pretext for the distortion and disfigurement of Paris.
Two years is a long time, and the thinking heads at City Hall are teeming with ideas to re-enchant us.
Thanks, but we didn't ask.