Paris mayor faces pushback over car-free Eiffel Tower zone despite Olympics hope

The mayor of Paris is facing major pushback over plans for a car-free zone near the city's iconic Eiffel Tower.

Thousands of tourists jostle every day to snap the tower from across the River Seine on the hill at Trocadero, with its gardens and a modernist palace housing museums. But getting to Trocadero can be troublesome, with many people having to cross two major intersections and the notoriously busy Pont d'Iena bridge.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has announced plans to counter these issues, revealing that she hopes to create a continuous garden between the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadero esplanade. Hidalgo wants to take advantage of the 2024 Summer Olympics to begin the project as soon as the Games end.

"After the Olympic Games, there will no longer be cars passing in front of the Eiffel Tower," Hidalgo said in an interview with the Ouest-France newspaper.

A "green" Trocadero, a "pedestrian-friendly" Iena bridge and a "reforested" Champ-de-Mars, the expansive lawn in the shadow of the Tower, "will all together form a large park in the heart of Paris," she said.

Supporters have lauded the efforts by Hidalgo to reduce pollution and increase green areas in the densely populated city, which some say can become unbearable when increasingly frequent summer heatwaves hit.

A trio of Japanese tourists taking photos next to the Pont d'Iena bridge believe that the plan would make a difference. One of the tourists, Mahiro, said the view was "disappointing" and the vista would be "more beautiful with less cars." 

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But the plans are also facing criticism from local residents and the Paris police chief, who is resisting the idea. France's new right-wing Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who says she will 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 Didier Lallement said he feared "significant traffic delays" and "hold-ups" that would slow down response times for emergency services.

Such concerns are shared by some members of the public. Everton, a Brazilian photographer who has been living in France for 15 years, said he was worried about how 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 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. Hidalgo has submitted a "modified" plan to the police authorities, hoping the preparations ahead of the Olympics would provide a new window of opportunity.

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