Paris is abandoning a €72 million plan to develop the area and create a large garden in time for the 2024 Olympic Games.

Meanwhile, protesters in Paris are rejoicing that they have managed to save ~40 trees, one of which is more than 200 years old, from being felled or damaged. These trees grow around the Eiffel Tower, which is part of the €72 million garden creation programme.

The Paris municipal government was forced to abandon plans to clear the area around the tower at Champ-de-Mars to improve access to the tower and make the traffic-congested area greener before the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Following weeks of protests, including a hunger strike, Paris officials initially announced that the future of the trees would be "considered on a case-by-case basis". Now, city administration representatives have acknowledged that felling the trees is considered an "extremely sensitive issue", which ultimately convinced them to abandon the idea entirely.

The plan to redevelop the area around the Eiffel Tower was one of the cornerstones of Mayor Anne Hidalgo's 2020 election campaign; it was designed by American architect Kathryn Gustafson from the London-based firm Gustafson Porter and Bowman, which won the competition.
Photo by Felix Mittermeier used