While the disappearance of Paris is becoming ever more apparent as the Olympic Games approach in the city managed (if we dare use that term) by Anne Hidalgo, the latter continues to set an example in the provinces, despite the ever-growing rejection of her policies. Just look at what is happening to Nancy, one of France’s most beautiful cities despite the destruction it suffered in the 1960s.
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- 1. Place Stanislas in Nancy
Photo: Berthold Werner (CC BY-SA 3.0) - See the image in its page
It should be remembered that a large part of the town is - theoretically - protected by a remarkable heritage area and is even included on the UNESCO World Heritage list. In reality, these protections are derisory (remember the Musée Lorrain affair->mot6751] which, alas, is not over yet) if the authorities in charge of heritage protection - the Ministry of Culture and its local branches, the DRACs - refuse to play their part. And this is unfortunately what we can see in Nancy, particularly near Place Stanislas (ill. 1).
Hidalgo wants to "vegetalize" Paris and the Place de la Concorde. So it’s hardly surprising that Mathieu Klein, the mayor of Nancy, who supported the mayor of Paris and was one of her spokespersons in her brilliant presidential campaign, wants to follow her example by ‘ vegetalizing’ Nancy and the Place Stanislas?
It’s underway, and even in the immediate vicinity of the Place (ill. 2 and 3). Planted small gardens block the view of the square and break the unity of the architecture. Not understanding that urban planning is an art and that trees and plants are obviously needed, but not just anywhere, seems to be a characteristic of some city councillors who believe they are doing something ecological.
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- 2. View of Place Stanislas, from Rue Gambetta, with vegetalization
Photo: La Tribune de l’Art - See the image in its page
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- 3. View of Place Stanislas, from Rue des Dominicains, with vegetalization
Photo: La Tribune de l’Art - See the image in its page
Let’s listen to what Laurent Watrin, ecologist deputy ‘for cooperative democracy, innovation in public policies and the digital city’ (just this long-winded title smacks of Parisian administration), said in La Semaine de Nancy on 20 July 2023: ‘Personally, I’d like us to work more closely with the Architectes des Bâtiments de France to go beyond the regulatory framework for planting in the remarkable heritage sector. We need to move up a gear. It’s a real issue’.
The ABF are the enemy, relentlessly singled out by all the politicians who dream only of vandalising the towns and cities of which they are the elected representatives! And yet the ABFs are already so tightly controlled by the prefects that, objectively speaking, they don’t have much power left in many places. But it’s still too much. You’re told that we have to ve-ge-ta-li-ze to save the planet. And that’s exactly what the Nancy municipality wants to do.
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- 4. Place Stanislas with an ‘ephemeral garden’ in November 2016
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
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- 5. Place Stanislas with an ‘ephemeral garden’ in November 2016
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
That’s what we’re now talking about for Place Stanislas, which only complete ignoramuses would think was designed to plant trees and hide its facades. When asked ‘What do you mean by that? Planting trees on Place Stanislas, as we are beginning to hear, for example?", Laurent Watrin replied: ’We need to take action and adapt to contradictory regulations [...] this local political courage needs to be hammered home and given a boost. I’m sure this is on the minds of Mathieu Klein and the first deputy mayor of Nancy, Isabelle Lucas’. What’s worse, so are we, just look at the ‘ephemeral garden’ (ill. 4 and 5) that has been set up every year for a month, for more than twenty years, in the square under the windows of the Town Hall. Vegetalizing is underway, we’ve been saved!