We humans, as a species, tend to have an overly romantic image of Paris. Yes, there’s a lot to discover in the City of Lights. Yes, some parts of France’s capital seem to come straight out of a movie. And sure, the City of Love can make your heart beat faster – although not necessarily for the right reasons. Everyone who has been to Paris before will know that it’s stunning, but it’s not a fairytale-come-true. Parisians always seem to have somewhere they need to be, prices are without a doubt on the higher side of things and the traffic can be quite heavy.
That being said, a lot has changed over the last decade or so. Whereas before a trip to Paris would cause actual pain to your lungs, nowadays, there’s more room for pedestrians, cyclists, roller skaters and so on. Trees have been added to the cityscape, roads have been made car free, trash has been cleaned. Little by little, Paris is really turning into its movie image, at least from the outside. But even though a lot has changed for the better already, Paris isn’t about to stop evolving. There’s still room to become even greener, more tranquil and things are moving fast.
One of the latest projects in the broader vision of making Paris more liveable and more eco-friendly takes place in the eighteenth arrondissement, aka Montmartre. This might well be one of the best-known Parisian neighbourhoods amongst tourists and honestly, it’s not hard to see why. With its narrow, winding streets, its many little restaurants and hidden squares, it’s quite easy to imagine you’re back in the nineteenth century, enjoying Paris’ artistic scenes – if you just think away the tourists, that is.
Narrow street? Less traffic
The mayor of Montmartre, Éric Lejoindre, soon wants to make part of the butte de Montmartre – the famous little hill – car free. Not all roads will be traffic free as the campaign will be concentrating mainly on the narrowest streets. Only public transportation, taxis, delivery vehicles and residents will have access to these streets once the measure takes effect, which will probably be in the fall of 2022.
On Twitter, Lejoindre also explains how the measure is part of Montmartre’s plan to make the butte de Montmartre part of UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The butte has indeed applied to be included to UNESCO’s list and the car free campaign could play in favor of its admission.
For those of you who can’t wait until the fall, Montmartre already participates in Paris Respire. In this project, multiple streets in Montmartre and Paris in general are turned into car free zones from 11AM to 7PM on Sundays and holidays.
