The Decline of a Great Avenue

Note: There is an update to the article at the end.

While the Champs-Elysées was preparing for the July 14 festivities, Parisians could not help but notice the gradual decline of the once majestic thoroughfare, from one of posh shops, sprawling outdoor cafés, movie houses, banks and travel agencies (this is how I remember it long ago) to a rather seedy third-world dominated gigantic skid row littered with trash. However, I cannot say I'm surprised. Fifth Avenue in New York is not the fashionable promenade it once was. Many cities have seen their glamorous downtown districts decay as both home-grown thugs and immigrants from a myriad of different cultures slowly take over. A reader sent this article from François Desouche. I am using the source article from France-Soir:

The most beautiful avenue in the world? The glorious title seems to have been definitively usurped. Growing insecurity and disgusting filth are at the heart of protests. Cleaning crews have plenty of work, but cannot stay on top of the impossible challenge. "We go up and down the street continuously with our machines, but since there are no more trash cans, because of Vigipirate, there are fast food wrappings everywhere."

Note: Vigipirate is a security measure implemented by the French government to prevent terrorism. Trash cans are a frequent target of both street thugs and terrorists who place bombs inside. The absence of the trash cans, however, has created a garbage catastrophe. It seems that the French today (or is it the immigrants and tourists?) eat while walking, something they never did in the old days (except for crêpes and Belgian waffles).

The Champs-Elysées benefits from a special operation explains the Paris City Hall. "It's the only avenue in the capital that is cleaned continuously from morning till night," emphasizes Jean-Bernard Bros, adjunct mayor in charge of tourism. From 6:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m., every day, twenty sweepers work in relays. But it is obviously not enough. A search is presumably underway for anti-bomb trash cans to be installed along the avenue, as is the case in London.

Note: I've heard there are transparent trash cans for this purpose. Crime forces us to change every detail of our daily lives, even trash cans.

Edouard Lefebvre, general delegate of the Champs-Elysées Committee that includes almost 160 merchants from the neighborhood, acknowledges the pollution: "Filth and insecurity exist, but it is normal considering the high volume of traffic. In one day, a number of people equal to the population of Bordeaux walk along the avenue!"

Every day the avenue brings together a cosmopolitan crowd: tourists, workers, beggars, unauthorized street vendors. Three weeks ago, three card Monte players invaded the area. "They're chased out of Montmartre, Pigalle and the Champ-de-Mars. Most of them are from countries of Eastern Europe. There are between sixty and a hundred of them. We were ordered to arrest them, but very quickly, police headquarters of the 8th arrondissement was filled to the brim, and we were told to remove them. Now, arrests are once again the order of the day," confided a police source.

Useless orders, grumbles the mayor of the 8th arrondissement François Lebel. "It serves no purpose to detain them only to let them go two hours later. For them to leave on their own, it would be better to increase the uniformed police patrols." The Police Prefecture, "does not deem it to be fitting" to divulge local statistics on crime.

(…)

There are four eye witness accounts of the Champs-Elysées in it current state:

- Frédéric, a salesman at Virgin for ten years:

"Today, the Champs-Elysées looks more and more like les Halles. In the evening, drunkards and guys from the ghetto ("zonards") hang around the store until closing time, at midnight. Salespeople watch them out of the corner of their eye, but cannot do much of anything. If there's a problem, the police are quickly overwhelmed. At night there are four who come to do their rounds. When the store opened, in the 1990's, there were forty. We close at midnight and for the workers who are there late, especially the women, it is no fun walking along the avenue to the metro or the regional rail."

- Jean-Pierre, owner of an apartment on the Champs-Elysées:

"For fifteen years I have been renting my apartment to tourists. It is located on the upper Champs-Elysées, a few steps from the Arc de Triomphe. Lately, we had to install a camera and a flash in front of the door to dissuade the Saturday night revelers from relieving themselves at the foot of our building. I live close-by, place Beauvau, and I cross the avenue every morning to take my son to school. Between 6:00 and 8:00 a.m., after the Streets Department has gone, the avenue is dazzling. But a few days ago, I came home around 5:00 a.m. and it was disgustingly filthy."

Benoît, manager of Fouquet's brasserie:

"Fifteen years ago the Champs-Elysées was a promenade for Parisians. I used to go there with my parents, we were all a bit dressed up, it was a real outing. Today, only tourists walk along the Champs, and Parisians avoid it or come only to do shopping or go to the movies. The most beautiful avenue in the world has lost its former glory. Only a few establishments, like Fouquet's, are resisting. Most have been replaced little by little by commercial chains. But it doesn't affect our regulars customers or the tourists."

Omar, salesman at Sephora:

"It's the most rotten avenue in the world! There is no advantage in working here. The sidewalks are dirty and it's dangerous to walk around at night. A colleague was slashed with a knife not long ago on her way home after closing, at 2:00 a.m. Others are regularly insulted or hissed. Every evening, it a calvary just getting up to place de l'Etoile."

Note: The Champs-Elysées always had a "seedy" side. Especially at night. There were dangers, but not like those today. I enjoyed the avenue at its best, at the height of the rush hours when the cafés were bursting with people, and not all of them were tourists. My bank (Chase Manhattan) was there, so I made regular trips, but I think I preferred other areas of Paris.

The photo shows a more familiar view of the fabled avenue, dressed for the festivities. From FNCV, where French readers can read articles about the deaths in Afghanistan.

Note: I realized after posting this that four years ago I wrote a similar article, using much the same language as I did in this one. At least I'm consistent.

Update - July 16: There have been some interesting comments to this post. First, I changed one phrase from "improvised street merchants" to "unauthorized street vendors", a better translation. These street vendors are part of an international ring of profiteers primarily from Senegal who gain access to foreign lands, and ply their trade, all for the glory of Allah whom they worship in the mosques of Paris, Harlem, and probably every other major city of the world. One reader has provided this link to a 20-minute video that follows these vendors from the streets of Paris near the Eiffel Tower, to Times Square, Harlem, and eventually back to Senegal.

It's helpful if you know French, but even if you don't, you may get something out of it. They go to New York, in search of the "American Dream". They sell anything and everything, a lot of it counterfeit, such as watches and "designer" handbags.

Here is a link to an article that will give you some background information. The article dates from 2009, but the presence of illegal vendors goes back to the 1980's.

Finally, if you read the second comment below, you will learn about an experiment that took place last year on the Champs-Elysées which was transformed for a few days into a huge piece of farmland, with trees and farm animals. The photos are amazing. Below, a thumbnail-sized image.