Centennial trees: after a controversy, the Paris City Hall backpedals



HASWhen the Olympic Games take place in Paris in two years, the town hall of the capital is continuing its preparations to host the most anticipated sporting event of the decade in France, but its latest project is likely to make many cringe. teeth. At the foot of the Eiffel Tower, 43 century-old trees will indeed be cut down soon, as indicated in the detailed project on the Paris City Hall website. It was the activist journalist Hugo Clément who took the initiative to question the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and his first deputy for urban planning Emmanuel Grégoire on Twitter: “Is it true, Anne Hidalgo? Emmanuel Gregory? Every tree counts in this ocean of concrete that is Paris,” he said.

The response of the main interested parties was not long in coming. “This project will improve the working conditions of the agents and reception of the public of the Eiffel Tower and the gardens. We are studying ways to avoid the felling of the 2 trees mentioned. 222 additional trees will be planted on this site”, defended Emmanuel Grégoire in response to Hugo Clément’s tweet, before publishing a message himself, affirming: “No century-old tree will be cut down, we make a commitment . The development project around the Eiffel Tower has undergone several changes since 2019. We will soon have the opportunity to present the details. »

The press release from the Paris City Hall on this controversial project explains that “the current configuration of the site no longer allows Parisians and tourists to be accommodated in satisfactory conditions. A vast site redevelopment operation has been launched in order to create a new urban park in the heart of Paris and to provide the Eiffel Tower with international tourist standards”. This is enough to fuel the critics while Anne Hidalgo continues to promote an ecological program, which she says she considers to be the “fight of the century”.

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