See €250m green makeover vision for Paris's Champs-Elysées
The project was first unveiled in 2019 by local community leaders and businesses.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the scheme would turn the famous boulevard in central Paris into “an extraordinary garden”.
She told the Journal du Dimanche that the project was one of several that would transform the city “before and after 2024”, including turning the area around the Eiffel Tower into an “extraordinary park at the heart of Paris”.
The plans, drawn up by architect firm PCA-Stream, show wide pedestrianised zones allowing for terrace cafes, dedicated cycle lanes with motorised traffic reduced to just two lanes in each direction.
The Champs-Elysées committee, which has been campaigning for improvements to the famous street for several years, said it was "delighted with this announcement and welcomes the decision by the mayor's office which appears to want to make the makeover of the Champs-Elysées one its main urban projects of this decade."
“The legendary avenue has lost its splendour during the last 30 years. It has been progressively abandoned by Parisians and has been hit by several successive crises: the gilets jaunes, strikes, health and economic,” the group said in a statement in which it welcomed Ms Hidalgo’s announcement.
The Place de la Concorde - at the south-east end of the thoroughfare - will be transformed in time for the Paris Olympics in 2024. This stage has been described by city authorities as a “municipal priority”.
Work on the rest of the avenue will take place afterwards, and is intended to be completed by 2030.
