When the limits are crossed, there are no more limits. The Paris city council, already fond of sayings in the style of Pierre Dac or Alphonse Allais (it wants to put the cities in the countryside, doing exactly the opposite, moreover), was already pursuing a catastrophic heritage policy. Since Anne Hidalgo announced that she would not be standing again, not only has the madness continued, but it has intensified.
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- 1. Palm trees currently on the Place de la Concorde
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
Several topics have been dominating social networks lately with regard to Parisian heritage. One of them concerns the palm pots installed on the Place de la Concorde (ill. 1).
The ministry told us that it had already contacted the Paris city council, as the installation of these pots with palm trees did not comply with the authorisation given by the DRAC [1] Île-de-France last November for the temporary installations (three years, after all) planned by the city council.
As the DRAC has confirmed to us, the City of Paris claims that this is an "experiment" that is not intended to last more than a month. Apart from the fact that one wonders the purpose of this experiment, the commission set up by the Minister of Culture having obviously excluded this type of ornament, the Paris city council is as usual getting away with it, not to say brazenly lying. Because palm trees have been present on the Place de la Concorde since at least the beginning of the year, as shown in this tweet from Aurélien Véron dated 4 January. And the large palm trees that have replaced the smaller ones have been there since at least 14 February, as can be seen on this other tweet.
But if the Paris city council is playing a shady game, it must unfortunately be said that the DRAC Île-de-France does not seem much clearer. Because it is asking the town hall for the removal of the palm trees to be effective on 26 March, on the pretext that the "formal observation on the site" was made on 26 February. However, there is nothing easier to demonstrate as we have done: palm trees, whether small or large, have been present since at least 4 January, i.e. for more than two months, without any authorisation. And if we consider only the large palm trees, they have been there since at least 14 February, as a quick Twitter search proves, and the DRAC should therefore demand that they be removed by 14 March, i.e. in nine days’ time.
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- 2. Pots and trees authorised by the DRAC for three years on the Place de la Concorde
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
This tendency of the DRAC Île-de-France to let everything pass to the town hall of Paris is a policy that we have observed for years. It now seems to go against that of the minister, who seemed to us to be much more determined; it was Rachida Dati herself who asked the DRAC, via her cabinet, to take action for the Place de la Concorde. This complacency of the Île-de-France DRAC towards the municipality can also be seen in the authorisation it nevertheless gave to install around fifteen orange tree pots, together with shrubs the same size as the palm trees, to delimit the traffic lane. These trees also hide the perspectives and views of the square’s architecture (ill. 2), and are also contrary to the recommendations of the commission validated by the minister. It would have been sufficient, however, to put in stone studs, models of which can be perfectly elegant and blend in perfectly with the minerality of the place, which does not need to be "vegetalised" beyond what is requested in the future development.
Let us add that the DRAC has also authorised the installation of plastic studs and steel bicycle hoops on the square, such as those seen everywhere in the streets of Paris. Unsightly street furniture for one of the most beautiful squares in the world....
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- 3. The Louis-Philippe Bridge and the palm trees installed for the Olympic Games, which could still be seen until Monday 3 March 2025.
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
It’s a real free-for-all. It should also be noted that for several months palm trees had also been installed on the Louis-Philippe bridge (ill. 3), again against all the rules. As the ministry has confirmed to us, these installations are absolutely prohibited on Parisian bridges. No doubt the ministry’s intervention on the Place de la Concorde played a role, but the fact remains that for the last two days these palm trees, which had been installed for the Olympic Games, have finally disappeared.
We should add that the minister’s office told us that: "when the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati contacts the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, she never responds, appearing to make the protection of heritage a personal matter. But Paris is not a personal matter."