Street lamps “demolished” in Paris because of the Olympic Games? A video showing work on the Esplanade des Invalides, with its historic lampposts dismantled, made the rounds on social networks this weekend. Very viral posts have been shared between 900 and more than 1,800 times on X (ex-Twitter). They denounce “the ravages” of Anne Hidalgo and the “demolition” of these historic lampposts “as part of work for the Olympic Games”, under an avalanche of outraged comments. The hashtag #saccageParis was quickly associated with it.
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Contacted, the City of Paris explains that this action was “temporary”. There is no question of demolition. The candelabra located on the avenue du Maréchal-Gallieni and on the esplanade des Invalides were “removed as part of the test event of the archery events of the Olympic Games in 2024”, explains the town hall.
And it was an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone since the finals of the French stage of the Archery World Cup took place on the Esplanade des Invalides on August 19 and 20, after the elimination phase at the Charléty Stadium. “We dropped off the candelabras at the request of the organizers so that the event could take place,” adds the City of Paris.
The site apparently made a good impression on the athletes: “With the cars, the lampposts, it was difficult to project ourselves, commented the French archer Caroline Lopez in The Team August 20. They removed streetlights, it’s a crazy thing. Seeing the site is very enticing, the world that is there is already impressive. »
“Unbearable” attacks
Some defective parts of the streetlights have also been repaired, while discharge lamps in the LED system still have to be installed, to be explained to the Parisian the Cielis consortium, which manages the public lighting market for the City of Paris. All the masts were reassembled at the end of last week, with the exception of a last one which was at the beginning of the week after repair, told us Emmanuel Grégoire, the first deputy to the City of Paris in charge of town planning.
For him, these attacks are “unbearable” and reflect “an obsession with nuisance and criticism”, he regrets to 20 minutes, judging this type of comment “crazy”. “In a city as complex as Paris, which has two million units of street furniture, you can imagine that the services do not inform us each time they do and undo something”, he points out. And he insists on “the incapacity [de ces comptes] to admit their mistakes by apologizing and deleting tweets when they are so blatantly untrue”.