Champs Elysées 2023 - transition

[kerouac2]

This has got to be one of the most photographed areas in Paris, even if it doesn't deserve it.  People always try to get the best photos possible, but sometimes the Champs Elysées is having a bad day (or month or year) and won't cooperate.  I thought it would be interesting to show it as it is right now, looking really quite ugly but preparing to look its best in 2024 for the Olympics.  So I walked from Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, pretty much a disaster.

For example I suspect that tourist wanting to take a picture of Place de la Concorde must be renaming it Place de WTF?

[kerouac2]

There is, however, the Hôtel de la Marine, the spectacular new heritage museum which opened in 2021. I have not been there yet.



I next crossed into the Champs Elysées gardens.



There is absolutely no park in Paris with so many unused benches. There are no offices, no residences and almost no hotels nearby.



It was still morning, so I don't know if people flock to this place later in the day.



A lot of the garden was closed off for renovation.





This part of the footpath along the avenue is new.



Here's what the unrenovated part looks like.



But renovation is imminent.



This is new and people were flocking there (dare I say streaming?).



The Grand Palais is now completely closed for its Olympic makeover.

[kerouac2]

empty flowerbeds at the Rond Point, empty fountains too



The grates around the trees are gone. They can no longer be weaponized during a riot.



Abercrombie & Fitch is gone. It never really caught on here.



Plenty of other missing places.





The Citroën showroom building has been empty for almost 10 years now. Its iconic design is impossible to repurpose.



A Gaumont multiplex used to be here.



Pizza Pino was here for more than 50 years. Even Parisians who hated it sometimes ate there because it was open until 5 a.m.





Renault was the very last automobile showroom on the Champs Elysées. And then there were none.

[fumobici]

I, personally, never felt the charms of the Parisian Elysian Fields. The park is nice, but the street itself felt like an upscale shopping mall and little more. The traffic kind of spoils it even for that, however. Maybe a shining new future awaits it, we shall see as all is revealed. I bet you are positively *jacked* about the coming olympics, K.

[kerouac2]

Oh yes, I am so jacked that I have not made any effort to obtain any Olymoic tickets even though I live far too close to a lot of the venues. The only thing that interests me is the fact that my street has been totally torn up to be "transformed" for the Olympics since it is the main street from the Stade de France (and several other venues) to the centre of Paris. So far they have done a lot of the tearing up but absolutely no transformation. They scraped off all of the asphalt because it was contaminated with asbestos (authorised until something like 1997), but that's all for the moment. I kind of like the paving stones from the 1920s or 30s being exposed, but it creates more traffic noise and even the bus bounces uncomfortably over them. They even put new temporary asphalt on the block in front of the school because they probably got a lot of complaints.

[kerouac2]

I was surprised to see that Sephora has moved to the location of where the Locker Room store was while their own location is being "refurbished."



The old location was totally flashy and modern, so what on earth are they going to do?



The Galerie du Claridge has completely disappeared except for the FNAC store which wisely moved into the basement right from the start.





The H&M flagship store already closed a year ago.



This is interesting because the huge Louis Vuitton flagship store is the big building across the street on the left.  If this planned for overflow?

[kerouac2]

Marionnaud is the other big perfume chain in France. Looks like they couldn't stand up to Sephora on the Champs.



I have no idea what these people were queueing for.



Louis Vuitton must have noticed how dreary the Champs Elysées has become and decided to brighten it up with their usual exquisite (?) taste.



The HSBC headquarters has been closed for years but Christian Dior likes to pretend it's theirs. It is supposed to become a Qatari shopping mall some day.







Good grief, even McDonald's has succumbed to the plastic flower craze.



This one is still the top grossing McDonald's location in the world.

[kerouac2]

Not much left. The Café Joyeux staffed by mentally handicapped people has expanded to both sides of the closed UGC multiplex. Obviously the city pays for the rent.







And then I reached the end of my stroll with its masses of people.



The queue to climb to the top of the monument was impressive.

In a year, all of this will look different.

[htmb]

Very nice and thorough little report, Kerouac. I wish I could avoid the area, especially after seeing your report, but I need to visit the PSG store to buy a small gift for the physical therapist who was so helpful to me. I found out she was a PSG fan and I’m hoping I will be able to pick up a pen, pin, or other small, inexpensive trinket she might appreciate. Now, after seeing your photos, I’m dreading having to make the trip even more. The Champs Elysées has never been one of my favorite areas in Paris. It’s amazing how much has changed already. I remember taking friends into both the Renault and Citroën showrooms in 2011, and they had a blast.

[bjd]

Definitely not one of my favourite places in Paris, which explains why I haven't been there in years. Boooring! Just big stores, although it looks as though most of them have closed. It looks pretty depressing and that's not just due to the weather.