A committee representing local businesses on the Champs-Élysées is calling for traffic to be restricted and new green space added in a bid to make Parisians fall back in love with the legendary avenue.
Once known as the world's most beautiful street and a magnet for promenading Parisians, the Champs-Élysées is typically shunned by locals today.
"People are out of love [with the Champs-Élysées] because the avenue is considered too noisy, too polluted, not necessarily very safe, and perhaps too given over to tourists," says Philippe Chiambaretta, an urban architect.
"That's why we Parisians don't really want to come and stroll here anymore."
Working with the Champs-Élysées Committee, his firm, PCA-Stream, has come up with 150 proposals to change that.
In a report presented to Paris city hall this week, they recommend devoting an extra 13 percent of the two-kilometre avenue to pedestrians and doubling the width of cycle lanes, while keeping four lanes for cars instead of six.
Benches, fountains and public toilets should be installed the length of the avenue, the report says, converting the equivalent of 150 square metres into space for rest and relaxation.
It also outlines plans to turn the gardens at the base of the Champs-Élysées – currently sparsely planted and with few amenities – into a true city park, with playgrounds, fountains and greenery.
In total, the report calls for an extra 160 trees to be planted and a hectare of lawns and flowerbeds added – which, it points out, would also help adapt the avenue to climate change by replacing hard, reflective pavement with porous earth that doesn't hold on to heat or rainfall.
"The point of 'regreening' the avenue and calming traffic by reducing the number of car lanes is to once more make it an innovative model – an example of what a city can be when it's both sustainable and enjoyable," Chiambaretta told RFI.
'Fundamentally local'
As well as an urban makeover, the Champs-Élysées Committee wants extra police patrols along the avenue to discourage the pickpockets and hawkers known for targeting distracted tourists.
It's also calling for a dedicated cultural programmer to organise concerts, markets and other events year round to attract visitors and locals alike.
"The Champs-Élysées must be fundamentally of the people, fundamentally Parisian and fundamentally local," Marc-Antoine Jamet, the committee's president, told RFI.
"We should all seek to reconcile Parisians with their avenue, which doesn't just belong to the world but also to them."
The committee, which has represented local traders and other stakeholders on the avenue for more than a century, has been trying to draw Parisians back to the Champs-Élysées through special events including a record-breaking spelling test and, last weekend, a giant picnic.
"I don't come here often because it's very crowded and noisy," Marie, who'd travelled from the Parisian suburb of Yvelines for the event, told RFI.
"Today we're reclaiming the avenue, it's more for sharing and relaxing. It's nice to have a bit more calm."
Florent, also seated on the vast red-and-white blanket rolled over the Champs-Élysées for the occasion, explained why it was a rare visit for him: "You only see tourists everywhere and luxury shops. There's nothing really authentically Parisian here."
Squeezed out
Independent business owners have long complained that they're being squeezed off the avenue by rocketing rents, leaving more and more ground space to high-end brands like Louis Vuitton and Lacoste.
Even large chains can no longer afford the real estate, with the 1930s UGC Normandie cinema – part of one of France's biggest groups – set to close in June and Fnac, the multinational media and electronics seller, shutting down its Champs-Élysées branch at the end of the year.
The Normandie will be the second historic cinema the avenue has lost within a year, after the Gaumont Marignan closed in December 2023 following 90 years of service. The UGC George-V, opened in 1938, shut down in 2020.
Better preserving the avenue's historic venues and architectural heritage were among the suggestions when the Champs-Élysées Committee consulted Parisians on what changes they'd like to see on the avenue.
Participants also called for more authentically French businesses instead of global mega-brands, as well as extra green space and more pedestrianised routes.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo is on board with the idea of redeveloping the thoroughfare and has promised to turn the area into an "extraordinary garden" – though no major work will start until the city has finished hosting the Olympic Games this summer.
City hall still has to consider the latest proposals, which this week's report costed at some €250 million.
