Esplanade des Invalides and Champ-de-Mars: a case study in misinformation

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Sacking Paris, as foreign tourists visiting the French capital can see, is not the only activity of Paris City Council. It also has a passion for denying the facts, even though these can be verified by anyone. Curiously though, the fact-checking specialists in the French news rarely look into these almost daily lies.

Twitter is one of their favourite playgrounds. Challenged daily by members of the informal group that has adopted the hashtag #saccageparis, they are on the lookout for any potentially erroneous information that might be disseminated via social networks, which they are quick to denounce as if they were proving that their opponents are talking nonsense.
But while false information (which they immediately label fake news) about the actions of Paris City Council may exist, it is exceedingly rare. And they often come from Twitter accounts that are in no way connected to the Saccage Paris movement, which almost anyone can claim to be part of ithout having the same ethics.

This is how the indisputable removal of lampposts on the esplanade des Invalides was denounced by a tweet (see above) which claimed that Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, was having them demolished as part of the work for the Olympic Games. This tweet has been widely liked, retweeted and quoted since it was published three days ago, and the Paris City Council has used it as a pretext to denounce, notably in an article in Le Parisien, the "increasing number of mystifications" of which those who denounce the City Council’s exactions would be guilty, thus leading people to believe that they do not exist.

If the tweet in question is false - and we’ll come back to this point later - who was it from? A regular member of #saccageparis? Absolutely not. From an account called ’Réalité actuelle’, which we heard about for the first time on this occasion. This account has only published two tweets emblazoned with #saccageparis. And as far as we know, it has never been regularly retweeted by the active members of this collective. Moreover, they gave no particular visibility to the message, which nevertheless very quickly went viral, as is sometimes the case on social networks.
Was the initial message deliberately misleading? It’s possible, but not even certain. Given this municipality’s track record, any work carried out in the capital is bound to be suspect, all the more so when it attacks street furniture that’s already been badly damaged, and when the Town Hall hasn’t communicated on the subject for a second.

So we looked into the matter ourselves, and asked the CIty Hall of the 7th arrondissement [1]. They were quick to respond, telling us that if the lampposts had indeed been removed by Paris City Hall in order to organise the archery event on 19 and 20 August, which is in itself a scandal, they would have to be quickly put back up. This was in fact the case, except for some which were found to be in poor condition, notably due to rust, and needed to be repaired or replaced (using re-editions based on old moulds), which is another scandal linked to the lack of maintenance of this furniture. But this takes time, and not everything will be back in place before the end of the year.

Once again, it is Paris that has to adapt to the Olympics (this competition served, like the aborted swimming events in the Seine, as a rehearsal for the Games), at the expense of its heritage. And there was never any question of killing two birds with one stone and taking advantage of this competition to restore the lampposts: this was requested by the City Hall of the 7th arrondissement and was not planned at all, since some of them now have to wait several weeks or even months for delivery.

As soon as we had confirmation of this, the French Twitter account of La Tribune de l’Art - we had refrained from intervening until then - published the information just (see above) several hours before the article in the Parisien, and the personal Twitter account of the author of these lines - who prides himself on belonging to the #saccageparis "movement" - published at about the same time as the latter article (and without having read it) a thread warning of the dangers of tweeting unverified information.
In short, while some #saccageparis supporters may have been fooled, this is far from a case of fake news created and disseminated by the movement.

Another tweet shows, quite to the contrary, that fake news is a speciality of most of the Parisian elected representatives in the majority.
This time it concerns the Champ-de-Mars, which has been massacred for many years by the city council. Dominique Dupré-Henry, co-founder of the Groupe National de Surveillance des Arbres (GNSA), tweeted about the disappearance of the lawns on the Champ-de-Mars (see above), with photos taken on 27 August. This tweet was quickly taken up (see below) by Lamia El Aaraje, Deputy "Universal Accessibility/Disability" at Paris City Hall and First Secretary of the Socialist Party in Paris, who published photos of the City Hall press conference on the Paralympic Games held at the ephemeral Grand Palais on 28 August, showing the lawns in good condition, ironically explaining that "the lawns came back in less than 24 hours" and adding that either the City had grown the lawns back overnight or Dominique Dupré-Henry’s tweet was "a huge fake news".

The bigger it is, the more it seems to get across, so says this elected member subservient to Anne Hidalgo, whose message was retweeted and/or liked by plenty of other elected members of the same ilk (David Assouline, Paul Simondon, Rémy Féraud, Patrick Bloche, etc.), by multiple courtiers and affiliates of Paris City Hall and, primus inter pares, by Anne Hidalgo herself (see below). The same people who regularly and shamelessly cry #SaccageParis fake news, even though they are frequently, almost daily, the identifiable authors of real fake news, each bigger than the last.

Because we, along with many others, went to the site to check that obviously everything Dominique Dupré-Henry had written was correct, and that the big lie did indeed come from deputy Lamia El Agraje, "first secretary of the Socialist Party in Paris" and all those elected representatives who supported her. No, the grass didn’t grow back overnight, and no, the tweet wasn’t "enormous fake news". Quite simply, and she obviously knew this perfectly well, what the images of the elected representative showed was not at all in the same place as the original tweet. The latter showed the lawns near the Eiffel Tower, to which she contrasted those near the ephemeral Grand Palais.

That was the first lie, but it didn’t stop there. If you take a closer look at the lawns in Lamia El Aaraje’s tweet, which looked green from a distance, you’ll see that they’re actually in a terrible state. Here are the photos we were able to take of the first lawn (ill. 1 to 4), the one next to the ephemeral Grand Palais. It’s largely peeled back, and in many places there’s no grass left. Seen up close, it is barely worthy of a muddy field in the countryside.

1. First lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
See the image in its page
2. First lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
See the image in its page
3. First lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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4. First lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
See the image in its page

So let’s continue our walk around the Champ-de-Mars [2], all the way to the Eiffel Tower to see what the state of one of the most beautiful gardens in Paris is like.
The second lawn is the only one that’s in reasonably good condition (ill. 5 to 8). Just about, but not even completely as you can see from our photos.

5. Second lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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6. Second lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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7. Second lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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8. Second lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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The third lawn is in much the same condition as the first, that is (ill. 9 to 12).

9. Third lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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10. Third lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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Third lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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12. Third lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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Same for the fourth (ill. 13 to 16).

13. Fourth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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14. Fourth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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15. Fourth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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16. Fourth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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And the fifth (ill. 17 to 20) is getting dangerously close to the state of the first.

17. Fifth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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18. Fifth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
See the image in its page
19. Fifth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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20. Fifth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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The central fountain (ill. 21) can then be seen, empty, of course, with its Art déco grilles largely gone. At the time of our survey of the state of Parisian fountains, in 2017 (so six years ago!), the grilles were already missing, but there were flowers, and water (ill. 22). It’s all over now, and has been for a long time.

21. Fountain of the Champ-de-Mars without water,
no flowers, and almost no grille
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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22. Champ-de-Mars fountain
(as at July 2017)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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The sixth lawn is largely damaged, and surrounded by temporary railings to protect them... It’s absolutely lovely (ill. 23 to 26).

23. Sixth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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24. Sixth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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25. Sixth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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26. Sixth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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As for the seventh and eighth lawns, they obviously can’t be called that any more, as they no longer exist. They are now two muddy wastelands where undemanding tourists take selfies in front of the Eiffel Tower. Two photos will suffice for each of them (ill. 27 to 30). Absolute shame. A disgrace denied by Lamia El Agraje, who calls those who denounce her liars. What name can be given to such elected representatives?

27. Seventh lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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28. Seventh lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo : Didier Rykner
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29. Eighth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo: Didier Rykner
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30. Eighth lawn from the
Grand Palais ephemeral
(as at 29 August 2023)
Photo : Didier Rykner
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31. The central lawns, near the Eiffel Tower, as at 29 April 2023
Photo : Didier Rykner
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On Twitter, the town hall of the 7th arrondissement said that the participatory budget would be devoted in particular to restoring the lawns. But what’s the point of replanting them - which, incidentally, is done more or less every year - if only to find that the area is managed in the same way, with frequent events, without banning tourists from the lawns or having the garden supervised? It would be totally costly and pointless. Just look at the state of the lawns near the Eiffel Tower on 29 April (ill. 31), four months ago! Barred from access by the horrible fences of the model seen on ill. 23, all it took was one summer to turn them into a muddy wasteland. It’s the same thing every year (which, incidentally, allows Paris City Council to claim that it’s repairing what it’s damaging) and it’s pointless.

32. East side of the Champ-de-Mars, not far from the Eiffel Tower: lawn gone, rubbish bin and street vendor
(29 August 2023)
Photo : Didier Rykner
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33. East side of the Champ-de-Mars,
not far from the Eiffel Tower
There used to be a lawn there
(29 August 2023)
Photo : Didier Rykner
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To complete this sorry picture of the state of the Champ-de-Mars, let’s show a few photos of the plastic rubbish bins, which are particularly unsuited to the place, as they are everywhere in this garden (ill. 32), and of the other lawns on the sides, which are, again, lawns in name only (ill. 33 and 34): sometimes you have to guess that grass used to grow here, and even those that are still surrounded by fences typical of Parisian gardens are no longer tended and are largely bald.

34. East side of the Champ-de-Mars,
not far from the Eiffel Tower
There used to be a lawn there
(29 August 2023)
Photo : Didier Rykner
See the image in its page
35. East side of the Champ-de-Mars,
not far from the EiffeI Tower
Lawn theoretically not trampled but not maintained or supervised either
(29 August 2023)
Photo : Didier Rykner
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Remember that in previous years, Parisian elected representatives and defenders of this town hall (there are still a few left) explained this state of affairs by the drought and the heatwave, which was already wrong and obviously no longer holds true for a second this year when there was neither drought nor heatwave in Paris.

36. View of the Eiffel Tower with protective wall and litter bins
(29 August 2023)
Photo : Didier Rykner
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37. Street vendors
near the Eiffel Tower
Bonus in the foreground: a concrete block from a building site that was never removed
(29 August 2023)
Photo : Didier Rykner
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Let’s end this sad walk celebrated by Lamia El Agraje and Anne Hidalgo with a few more views of the area around the Eiffel Tower, with more rubbish bins (ill. 35), street vendors (ill. 36), not to mention pickpockets pretending to sign fake petitions (we saw them but didn’t take any photos), shell game players (they seemed to be temporarily absent, no doubt because of the presence of four national police officers), and tuk-tuks looking for tourists to rip them off. An ordinary day at the Champ-de-Mars. Paris is magic! as Hidalgo would say.

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