“Come before midnight, I’ll make you live a dream!” » This verse from Gim’s has never applied so well to the Champs-Elysées as this year. Indeed, in a press release, the Champs-Elysées Committee (CCE), which brings together the economic and cultural players in the sector, announces that the next Christmas illuminations will be shortened.
“Their flickering will cease at 11:45 p.m., 2:15 a.m. earlier than in previous years,” the statement said. By shining from Sunday November 20 to Monday January 2 inclusive, instead of Sunday November 20 to Monday January 9, they will last six weeks against seven previously. On the other hand, for the evenings of December 24 and 31, they will shine all night long. According to the CCE, this decision aims “to avoid load shedding and power shortages this winter” and is part of “concrete proposals that combine sobriety and efficiency, solidarity and speed”.
Shop windows without lights after 10 p.m.
This choice to reduce the wing of the illuminations will reduce energy consumption by 44%. Thus “the 2022 illuminations will only mobilize 13,176 kWH, i.e. the annual consumption of a household with 3/4 occupants, compared to 23,400 KwH in 2021”, specifies the press release.
The members of the Committee have also decided to apply this lighting sobriety to themselves since from October 15 the signs on the avenue will turn off their lighting from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. the next day. Restaurants and cinemas may derogate from this, due to their activity, but the “Committee encourages them, however, to turn off their lights as soon as they are closed”.
“It was our duty to show ourselves, collectively, in solidarity, exemplary, comments Marc-Antoine Jamet, president of the CCE. The time had come, through our action, through our model, to participate concretely and to encourage energy sobriety. “But the president assures him, despite the shortening of the Christmas lights, “The fields of sobriety remain the Champs-Elysées”.