The Champs-Élysées has one of the wildest roundabouts in the world.
The makeover will cost €250m and will be built after the 2024 Olympics.
The Arc de Triomphe is quite possibly the most famous landmark of the Champs-Élysées in the 8th Arrondissement of Paris. The roundabout that surrounds the Place Charles de Gaule is just one portion of this extremely busy thoroughfare is one of the areas that will be turned into a massive garden by the end of this decade.
If you’ve ever driven in Paris, and through the Champs-Élysées’ eight-lane highway, you’ll remember how crowded with cars the area is. In fact, negotiating the roundabout is a driving lesson in patience, aggression, and skill all rolled into one.
By 2030, the more than 3,000 cars an hour that drive by the expensive cafes, luxury shops, high-end car salesrooms will mostly disappear and replaced by “pedestrian and green areas, and creating tunnels of trees to improve air quality, according to The Guardian.
The scenic the 1.9 km (1.2 mile) stretch of central Paris has been determined to be more polluted than the busy périphérique ring road around the French capital, said the architect Philippe Chiambaretta. It is his firm, PCA-Stream, that drew up the Champs-Élysées’ makeover plans.