PARIS – Removing cars from the area around the Eiffel Tower to create a green pathway looks good on paper, but the mayor of Paris is struggling to win over residents and the police force in a bid to revamp one of the city’s most celebrated views.
Thousands of tourists jostle daily to take photos of the Eiffel Tower from across the River Seine on the hill at Trocadero, with its magnificent gardens and a modernist palace housing museums.
Walking to Trocadero is less romantic, however, requiring the crossing of two major intersections and the often traffic-clogged Pont d’Iena bridge.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo this week said she wants to push ahead with a project to clear out the cars and create a continuous garden between the Eiffel Tower and Trocadero esplanade.
She is hoping to take advantage of the 2024 Summer Olympics to begin the project as soon as the Games end but her critics – and most importantly the Paris police chief – are resisting the plan.
The plan is part of efforts by Ms Hidalgo, a socialist, to push cars out of Paris and make the city greener, but residents and political opponents are divided by the proposal, and say her policies go too far.
Three Japanese tourists taking photos next to the busy Pont d’Iena bridge agreed that the plan would make a difference.
The view was “disappointing”, one of them said, adding that the vista would be “more beautiful with (fewer) cars”.
Ms Hidalgo launched the project in 2019 but soon clashed with then city police chief Didier Lallement and the right-wing mayors of three of the city’s districts over concerns about traffic disruptions.
But Ms Hidalgo, who announced a similar plan in January to ban cars on half of the central Place de la Concorde, site of the iconic Luxor Obelisk, is hoping the fervour of the Olympics will garner support for the ambitious project.
Ms Hidalgo, in a Ouest-France newspaper report published on Feb 6, said: “After the Olympic Games, there will no longer be cars passing in front of the Eiffel Tower.”
A green Trocadero, a pedestrian-friendly bridge and a reforested Champ-de-Mars – the expansive lawn in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower – “will all together form a large park in the heart of Paris”, she said.
Supporters have lauded the efforts by Ms Hidalgo, a former presidential candidate, to reduce pollution and increase green areas in the densely populated city, which can become unbearable when increasingly frequent summer heatwaves hit.
During her first term in office, Ms Hidalgo scored her biggest urbanisation win with the pedestrianisation of the embankment on the right bank of the Seine after a two-year battle.
But the Trocadero project was rejected by an administrative court in 2022 and 2023, and the mayor’s office acknowledged that the initial project was not destined to be implemented.
Ms Hidalgo has submitted a “modified” plan to the police authorities, hoping the preparations ahead of the Olympics would provide a new window of opportunity.
France’s new right-wing Culture Minister Rachida Dati, an arch-foe of Ms Hidalgo’s and who plans to run for Paris mayor in 2026, branded the new plan a “coup”.
And Paris police chief Laurent Nunez maintained his administration’s opposition, saying “there remain many questions... on several points”.
In May 2022, his predecessor said he feared “significant traffic delays” and “hold-ups” that would slow down response times for emergency services.
Brazilian photographer Everton, who has been living in France for 15 years, said he was worried about how Ms Hidalgo’s plan would impact commuters in Paris.
“That’s going to block the bridge and there are people who need to drive in Paris,” he said. “I believe we need to do something, but it’s important not to go overboard.”
The police have said they are open to reviewing the new proposal promised by the mayor’s office.
The Eiffel Tower is one of the most popular monuments in the world, with 6.3 million tourists visiting in 2023.
About 15 million visitors are expected for the Olympics in July and August, and the Paralympics in August and early September. AFP
