The Champs-Élysées, a 1.9km-long avenue in central Paris, will undergo a major €250m makeover following the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The renovation was announced by the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who said the plans will transform the congested road into an “extraordinary garden”.
Designed in 1697 by André Le Nôtre as an extension of the Tuileries garden, today it is Paris’s most famous commercial street lined with expensive cafés and luxury goods stores. It is also one of the most polluted arterial roads in the French capital and in recent decades has been avoided by locals.
“The legendary avenue has lost its splendour over the past 30 years. It has been gradually abandoned by the Parisians and suffered the full brunt of several respective crises: yellow vests, strikes, health and economic crisis etc,” said the Champs Élysées committee in a statement that welcomed the renovation.
The project, led by the agency PCA-Stream, plans to create a number of green areas and reduce space for vehicles by half. It will also create tunnels of trees to improve air quality, establish cycle paths with permeable surfaces and totally pedestrianise the Place de la Concorde.
Other parts of the city that will undergo a facelift around the 2024 Olympics include the area surrounding the Eiffel Tower, which will be transformed into “extraordinary park at the heart of Paris”, Hidalgo told Le Journal du Dimanche.
