Champs-Elysees to become an "extraordinary garden"

One of the world’s most famous streets, the Champs-Elysees in Paris, is to be transformed into an “extraordinary garden”.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced the $423 million makeover, confirming stage one of the project involves renovation of the Place de la Concorde before Paris hosts the 2024 Olympic Games. The rest of the nearly 2km avenue will be completed after the games.

The thoroughfare, which runs between the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concorde, has eight lanes of traffic used by around 3000 vehicles an hour.

Architect Philippe Chiambaretta, whose firm PCA_Stream developed the makeover plans, described it as more polluted than the busy périphérique ring road around Paris.

Concept drawings of the proposed changes to Paris's Champs-Élysées. Photo: Courtesy of PCA-STREAM

He says the Champs-Elysees has become the place that sums up the problems faced by cities around the world: “pollution, the place of the care, tourism and consumerism”. It needs to be redeveloped to be “ecological, desirable and inclusive”, he says.

Plans drawn up by his consultancy include wider sidewalks and more greenery or “planted living rooms”.

The Champs-Élysées committee - a local association which works to promote and develop the avenue, has been campaigning for the makeover since 2018. In a statement welcoming the news it said: “The mythical avenue has lost its splendour during the last 30 years. It was gradually abandoned by Parisians and suffered the full brunt of several successive crises: the yellow vests, strikes, health and economic crises.

Cars will still be able to drive through the famous avenue but traffic will be limited. Photo: Courtesy of PCA-STREAM

“The Champs-Élysées has more and more visitors and big-name businesses battle to be on it, but to French people it’s looking worn out.

“The Champs-Élysées Committee will remain a constructive and committed partner of the City of Paris throughout the project. In particular, it will remain attentive to ensuring that the metamorphosis of this district is, in its schedule and its level of ambition, up to the challenges.” 

The proposal means more green spaces to relax in. Photo: Courtesy of PCA-STREAM

The Champs-Élysées’ name is French for the mythical Greek paradise, the Elysian Fields - the place for dead heroes in Greek Mythology. The site and was originally a mixture of swamp and kitchen gardens.

Louis XIV the Sun King’s gardener, André Le Nôtre, first designed the wide promenade lined with a double row of elm trees on each side, called the Grand Cours.

It was renamed the Champs-Élysées in 1709 and extended. By the end of the century had become a popular place to walk and picnic.