It is evening rush hour and the Rue de Rivoli, a major east-west road through central Paris, is heaving. Pre-coronavirus, it would have been one long traffic jam, paralysed by increasingly frustrated and angry motorists. Now, though, with private cars banned, it is busy with pedestrians, cyclists and a smattering of taxis and buses.
North of Rue de Rivoli, in the Marais, a maze of narrow cobbled streets, cafes, restaurants and bars have spread out across pavements and parking places.
As France returns to normal, after what President Emmanuel Macron described as the “war” on Covid-19, the battle is now on for public space in Paris.
The pedestrianisation of Rue de Rivoli has crystallised the divide between competing interests: celebrated by cyclists and described by popular French TV star Thierry Ardisson as “a dream”; seen by motorists as part of City Hall’s “obsession” to drive them out of the capital.
Unsurprisingly, France’s motoring lobby vehemently opposes the ongoing campaign by Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo – up for re-election later this month – against private cars. Her manifesto pledges to put cycle lanes on all streets, swallowing up 60,000 parking places, 45% of those available in the city.
“I do not want Paris to be invaded by private cars, which are synonymous with pollution,” Hidalgo said last month.
Motorist groups are furious. “We’re fed up with being portrayed as the bad guys,” said a spokeswoman for 40 Million Automobilists. Edouard Lecomte, director general of the National Federation for Parking Professionals, regretted a lack of consultation before roads like Rivoli were closed to cars.
“Of course we need a better sharing of the public space, that is clearly necessary, but we need to find room for all modes of transport, including cars,” he said.
Pierre Emmanuel Duprat, of the Les Halles Residents Association, which includes part of Rue de Rivoli, said he was worried that driving cars out of central Paris would hit local businesses.
“As a local resident I could be selfish and say it’s wonderful that Rivoli has been pedestrianised, but already it’s a nightmare to drive and park in central Paris. If we drive out all cars and this hits businesses, then in the long term I fear we will see the desertification of the city centre as in other cities and it will become nothing more than a theme park for tourists,” he said.
On the other hand, Hidalgo’s decision to allow cafes and restaurants to use the pavements and parking places as temporary terraces has won praise.
“The authorised occupation of the public space is an excellent thing,” Alain Fontaine, owner of the traditional Parisian bistro near the Paris Opera, told the Observer. “It brings revenue to Parisian restaurateurs who cannot yet open the interior of their establishments. For some, the opening of these terraces on public space will quite simply save their business from bankruptcy.
“And there is no doubt that the provisional conquest of these public spaces by restaurants brings to the city of Paris a more convivial dimension, with a sharing of a certain art de vivre on the pavements.”
Restaurants in Paris are hoping for the coronavirus rules to be relaxed further next week, allowing them to fully open. The temporary terraces are authorised until the end of September.
But for pedestrians, especially those with children or limited mobility – forced to dodge cycles, motorbikes, scooters and sometimes even cars on city pavements – the battle for space goes on.
“It’s been lovely to see the Parisian way of life return, but there should be enough space for everyone else to go past safely, especially with the social distancing rules we’re all meant to be observing,” Claire Tran, an actress and mother of a two-year-old, said.
“Paris has always been very difficult to navigate with a pushchair. Now it’s become even more difficult to move around with the cafe terraces spread out over the pavements.”
