From Eiffel Towerselfies to walks in Montmartre, there are many reasons Paris is one of the most-visited cities in the world. Tourists can''t get enough of the Louvre museum, the Arc de Triomphe orNotre-Dame Cathedral.
But there is another, less-chic facet of the French capital that cannot be overlooked: Congested boulevards, street noise and trash. Such unpleasant realities are a thorn in the side of many Parisians.
Fortunately, there are an increasing number of sustainable initiatives in the city which aim to combat this —from industrial areas turned into parks to apps that promote walking instead of tourist buses.
Sustainabilityinitiatives in Parisextend to the world of fashion the city''s many second-hand clothing stores—many are located inthe Marais district in the city center—garments easily find new owners.Meanwhile, in the city''s 18th arrondissement tothe north, the Recyclerieeco-culture project is situated in the former Ornano train station.
"The building was the former station of the Petite Ceinture, the predecessor of the Métro," says Marie-Eugenie Chanvillard, director of Recyclerie, which started in 2014 with the mission of promotingeco-responsibility and social justice. "The station has been used in different ways over the years, including as a bank. We wanted to keep the space and remind people of the station''s past," she said.
The Petite Ceinture was a 32-kilometer (19 mile) circular rail line that ran around Paris. In 2007, a first section was made into a pedestrian area, and others followed. Over the years, nature has started to take over and the tracks became a thriving green space— and now one that has been developed for public use.
In France, "Recycleries" refer to places where non-functional equipment is repaired and resold. As the name suggests, the Recyclerie still has a workshop where broken items can be repaired.
Thesustainability theme is complementedwith a cafeteria,urban gardens and even the sale of organic food and natural wine. The old tracks are now a cozy public courtyard, whilethere''s also a vegetable garden with a chicken coop in the space''s urban farm.
The Recyclerie is not the only place in Paris where a train track has been converted into an outdoor space for people to enjoy. The Coulee verte Rene-Dumont is a four-kilometer-long elevated park on a disused railroad line that begins near the Place de la Bastille in the city''s center.
It''s unsurprising that converted train tracks should find a new use. Train lines have a special place in the French capital, especially considering the city''s main means of transportation is the Metro. Despite what heavy traffic on the streets might suggest, Paris has an extensive public transportation network that is constantly being expanded. It connects the city''s suburbs with the center.
In recent years, however, some Parisians have switched to riding bikes for their work commute,makinguse of the bicycle lane networkthat continues to be expanded. TheRue de Rivoli between the Louvre and the Bastille, for example,was converted into a bike lane just three years ago.
In preparation for the 2024 Olympics, the city of Paris is also planning several environmentally conscious changes to the city''s busiest squares, including the Place de la Nation. The administration hopes to reducetraffic in tourist hotspots and provide more space for pedestrians. The area around the Eiffel Tower, for example, will be expanded and landscaped.
In the southeast of Paris, the CiteFertile in thesuburb of Pantin is another area where old meets new. The converted freight station is on a large site that also includesa brewery, greenhouse, restaurant, workrooms and around 250 plant species.
This urban oasis was created four years ago as part of the eco-quartier Pantin, a project to create an ecological urban district. It''s popular with people living in the neighborhood, too.
"On Sundays, many families come to the Cité Fertile. It''s right next door, in the fresh air, and is a great place to linger for a little while," says Helene Flourac, who is responsible for its development and partnerships.
Both the Recyclerie and the CiteFertile see themselves asretreats fromthe busyParis metropolis;and as places to explore ways to createsustainable futures. In addition to festivals in the summer, the CiteFertile organizes various sports classes and is a platform for environmental political topics.
The aim is to bring together ideas about sustainability from a variety of fields. "Ecologically designed events are a real issue for the city of the future," says Flourac.
These days, it''s not necessary to hop on a classic touristbus to see Paris. Tourists can choose a more sustainable option by using an app called Balades Paris durable(Walks in Sustainable Paris). Developed by the city, the appallows people to leisurely explore the green areas of Paris on foot andincludes over two dozen routes that go through almost all Parisian neighborhoods.
Rangingfrom 2 to 5 kilometers (1.2 to 2.1 miles) in length,each walk features different stops on a map. Theapp displaysimagesand information about the sustainable features of these locations — from drinking water fountains to local community gardens. The walking routes lead curious city strollers through neighborhoods like Clichy, with its energy-friendly building designs.
In other green places, such as the Buttes Chaumont park or the famous Père Lachaise cemetery, you can also use the app to get to know the city''s animal and plant species better. Some stopsare located in well-known neighborhoods in the historic city center — but in locations where tourists are less likely to take a closer look. With the help of the app, for example, users can learn about hidden green oases on the banks of the Seine that might be missed on a conventional sightseeing tour.
Paris is notable for its places and innovations that show how sustainability can be explored in a metropolis of 2.1 million people. Whether tourists will make use of them —or continue with the classic tourist sites, it''s up to them.
This article was translated from German.
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Openness to change isn’t a characteristic you’d normally associate with Paris, with its proud, traditional, regulation-hugging image.Nor is green open space – given the popular image of the city is all grand boulevards, gravel parks and a sea of undulating rooftops.
So it might surprise youthat the French capitalis now leading the charge when it comes to carving out an environmentally-sound vision of city life s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, has placed green policies at the forefrontof her campaigns ever since she was first elected in 2014. And unlikesome other leaders around the world, she is also acting on them.
The pedestrianised stretch of the Left Bank. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons / Guilhem Vellut
Just take the roads. If you’ve walked through Paris at any point over the past five years, it may well have felt like one gigantic building site. Around 900 miles of bike lanes have been created across the citysince Hidalgo came to office. Major roads, including thequais thatrun alongsidethe River Seine in the very centre, have been shut off to traffic entirely. The world-famous plazas of Madeleine, Nation and Bastille have already been redesigned to make them more pedestrian-friendly. From 2024, all diesel cars will be banned from the city, and by 2030 petrol cars will beas well.
These moves haven’t been without controversy. Taxi drivers and other members of the car lobby have staged mass protests against many of the measures. But the city continues undeterred, making the most of the fact that the streets have emptied out significantly over the past year to drive through further changes.
During the first lockdown in 2020, for example, the city turned 40 miles of road into bike lanes, dubbed ‘corona pistes’(‘corona lanes’), and banned cars from the Rue de Rivoli, which stretches all the way from the Louvre to the Place de la Bastille. Theseinitiatives are set to be made permanent, with the entirety of the first four arrondissements– some seven percent of the city – going car-free as early as next year.
The proposed urban forest in front of the Hôtel de Ville. Photograph: Apur / Céline Orsingher
At the same time, plans are afoot to plant four new ‘urban forests’ next to major landmarks including the Hôtel de Ville, the Gare de Lyon and the Opéra Garnier. By 2026, mayor Hidalgo has pledged to plant more than 170,000 trees across the capital, with 50 percent of the city covered by planted areas by 2030. To help make that happen, building codes have been loosened so it is much easier for Parisians to plant trees in their neighbourhoods. It’s all in line with what Hidalgo told The New York Timeswas one of her majorgoals: to ‘build this city around the individual’. One simple way to do that, she added, was to put nature back into urban life.
AsParis gears up to host the 2024 Olympic Games, it also plans to give many other major sights a green new look. The area around the Eiffel Tower, for example, is to be turned into an ‘extraordinary park’ just in time for the games. The Place de la Concorde, Paris’s biggest square and the site of Marie-Antoinette’s execution, will also be planted with new ‘park areas’. And the suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis will soon be home to a new ‘eco-friendly’ Olympic Village, Media City and Olympic aquatic centre. Riverside pools, built for the games and filled with cleaned water from the Seine, will subsequently be given over to public use.
The planned redesign of the Place de la Concorde. Photograph: PCA-STREAM
Much of the impetus behindsuch high-profile green projects stems back to another momentous international event that took place in Seine-Saint-Denis. Back in December 2015, all eyes were on this northern corner of the French capital as it played host to theUnited Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21). The talks were hailed as a turning point in the fight against climate change, with countries pledging tolimit global warming to no more than 2C above preindustrial levels.
Cities, which produce 60 percent of the world’s carbon emissions and use 78 percent of its energy, will have to play a major role inturning the Paris Agreement from promise into reality. So perhaps it shouldn’t be so surprising after all that theCOP 21 host should now be showing others how it’sdone.
The plans stretch far beyond the 2024 Olympics. By 2030,Paris’s most famous street, the Champs-Élysées, will be turned into an ‘extraordinary garden’ as part of a massive €250 million makeover. The plans include reducing the number ofcar lanes from four to two, creating new pedestrian and green areas, and planting ‘tree tunnels’ that improve air quality along the 1.9km-long avenue.
Perhaps most ambitiously, Paris wants to reshape the way its two million residents interact with the city around them, with a focus on reducing car use and encouraging travel on foot and public transport. One of Hidalgo’s consultants is Carlos Moreno, a professor at the city’s Sorbonne University and one of the major proponents of the ‘15-minute city’ concept. In this model of the city, residents would have access to all basic services (public transport, shops, schools) within a quarter-hour of their home. ‘We’ve seen through the pandemic that it’s possible to work differently, to create new hubs,’ Moreno told Timelast year. ‘I am optimistic.’
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