The recommendations of the Commission for the rehabilitation of La Concorde

Contrary to what some may have understood, the commission set up by Paris City Hall to make recommendations on the rehabilitation of the Place de la Concorde did not give it a blank check. The term " vegetalize ", a neologism used in all sorts of ways by the municipality, which is also to be found in this (very short) report, clearly doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Indeed, there is never any question of planting trees in the square, nor of transforming it into a permanent events venue, as has been the case far too often in recent years, and again today with the Olympic Games.

Let’s take a look at these recommendations as they appear in the report, starting with those that are not open to discussion because they take into account the historic character of the site.
The first two call for "conserving the historic character of the square [...] and [its]great perspectives" and "preserving and enhancing existing architectural elements and historic decor [...]". This is indeed the least we can do for a site that is entirely classified as a historic monument, and which lies within the perimeter of the Unesco World Heritage site.

The commission also recommends (to help restore the square’s symmetry) removing the two car hoppers, inherited from the Pompidou years, whose policy was to adapt the city to the automobile. This will, on the one hand, "recover the historic continuity between the Champs-Élysées gardens and the Place de la Concorde", and on the other, "reinforce the link with the Seine". There’s no denying that these two arrangements were unfortunate, even if they were barely above ground level; removing them is a good thing. Of course, this does not mean removing all traffic from the Place de la Concorde: Paris is a historic city, but it is also an economic capital. Pompidou’s policy was a disaster; Anne Hidalgo’s, which is the exact opposite, is another. The ideal solution lies somewhere in between, and the commission understood this perfectly when it…