“There is everything you want on the Champs-Élysées”, well especially if you want a new Louis Vuitton bag or a cliché decor to fill a slot on Instagram. It is 11 o'clock, the few terraces of the Champs are preparing for tourist lunches. The waitresses watch out for the customers, who only have eyes for the big luxury boutiques.
The avenue no longer has the soul for celebration or culture. Its last cinema, the UGC Normandie, will close its doors in June, after 87 years of screenings. Almost no one stops in front. The room is no longer legendary for many people, tourists pass quickly, from one store to another, up to the Arc de Triomphe roundabout, an ideal spot for a little photo shoot. The weather is nice, you have to “enjoy”.
READ ALSO : From Proust to Godard, cultural walk on the Champs-Elysées
Soon, the avenue gradually filled up, always with tourists. We recognize them from afar, already because they are the only ones still walking the approximately 1,900 meters between Place de la Concorde and Place Charles-de-Gaulle (formerly Place de l'Etoile), and because many of them display the same external signs of a Parisian stay: on their arms a huge orange flocked paper bag “LV”, for Louis Vuitton, with inside an item estimated at between one and several minimum wage; on the head the traditional French beret, which is actually only worn by foreigners. €10 for a red headgear, sold at newsstands, the taste of France at low cost, made abroad.
An open-air shopping center
The majority of people interviewed by Marianne going up the avenue make the same observation: the Champs are nothing more than a long shopping center. When you walk along the main road on the right-hand sidewalk – the most popular – from the Champs-Élysées-Marcel-Dassault roundabout, it’s difficult to make them lie.Adidas leads the way, followed by Foot Locker then Lululemon, other sports brands, 100 meters further. Next comes ready-to-wear, with a proud Levi's store followed by flashy Lacoste. And there it is, here we are.
Lancôme, Dior, the Lafayette and Chanel galleries follow one another, the march closes at the first intersection with a huge Monoprix. The splendor resumes a little further with the various commercial properties of LVMH. And then, how can you miss it, the big luxury that stains: the immense Louis Vuitton brand. Foreigners pose in front of it as if it were the Mona Lisa. Under the golden sign at the height of its glory, the queue is already thirty meters long, and it is not yet noon. Mike, 64, Franco-American and former bank director, summarizes: “It is no longer a beautiful avenue, it is a shopping center. »
READ ALSO : Up to 695 times what the employee earns: the most aberrant salary gaps in the CAC
The high end is trying to make a strong comeback on the Champs, to stifle the popular and inexpensive brands that have tried to make a place for themselves there. In the middle of the avenue, Citadium and Zara face each other. There fast fashion no longer has the cheap ashamed, it appears in the fields next to a Rolex store. Clothing brands with a short lifespan want their place, but have difficulty resisting the crazy rent prices, and the desertion of the avenue by the middle classes. Olivier, 45, who works in finance right next to the Arc de Triomphe, notices a ” improvement “ recent: “Ten years ago, we saw H&M flourishing. In recent years, we have seen more Dior and others. »
The Paris of foreigners
But this return to luxury comes at a price: the French are leaving the ship. “It’s really just for tourists”, agrees Olivier, who admits to not frequenting the place much. A little further away, Thierry, a 73-year-old retiree, only comes for lunch with his son, who works on the avenue: “Between insecurity and luxury everywhere, the French are going elsewhere. » Denis, a middle-class local resident who strolls near the newly redone roundabout, complains of a “low-end foreign tourism”.
READ ALSO : (Good sheets): “PSG Confidential”: Money, politics and mischief, the secret history of the Parisian club
Dominique, 58, who works in consulting, does not deplore the lack of soul of the Champs-Élysées, but shares the observation: “It’s just a commercial showcase for tourists and big luxury brands. It's good for the know-how that is highlighted, but it no longer represents anything else. »
You will have to pay more than €100 to travel the avenue for 20 minutes in a Ferrari. It cannot be refused.
Antoine Margueritte
In front of the immense “creation” of Louis Vuitton, a giant metal trunk which hides the construction site of a hotel, foreign tourists follow one another, striking a pose. A few meters further, the Disneyland-Champs-Elysées offers an “adult only” attraction. Since 2011, two bright red Ferraris have been available for rental, to parade around in a funfair style. €129 for 20 minutes of backfiring. €199 for a Lamborghini.
The party is over
If in the past, we celebrated on the Champs, those days are over. No more nightclubs on the avenue, you have to climb up to the Arc de Triomphe, to hope to meet a few players from PSG and the golden youth of Paris, or from the Gulf countries. “In the evening, it’s less lively than before, at least not in the same way”, confesses Anthony, waiter. Parisians party elsewhere. Abir, 25, an analyst in the neighborhood, joins him: “I never come here for a drink, I’m only here to work. » Thibaut and Juliette agree, it’s “only a workplace”.
The older generation is nostalgic. “I used to frequent the Champs a lot in my youth! There were all the cinemas. It was always a pleasant meeting. After the film we had a drink in a bar nearby, now I don't come anymore. In my imagination, the Champs was the Belmondo scene in Breathlessnow it’s a mess point, you go through it holding your wallet”worries Manuel, 68 years old, president of a financial company.
Gulf Avenue
The announced closure of the UGC Normandie is only the last stage in the erasure of culture on the famous avenue, after the closure of the Virgin Megastore in 2012. In both cases, it is Qatar which gets its chestnuts inflationary fire. According to Le Figarothe royal family of the gas country, owner of the building housing the cinema, refused to lower its rent “monstrous” to save the projection location.
In 2023, commercial rents on the avenue would reach 15,000 euros per square meter on average, according to the real estate company Cushman & Wakefield. Difficult to resist for the industry, in crisis, of the seventh art. According to the company Comscore, more than four million moviegoers flocked to a screening in 2001. That's eight times fewer in 2023. Since the 1990s, nine movie theaters have closed, soon to be 10.
Françoise, a 58-year-old banker, wants to see the avenue in pink: “There’s not much charm left but it’s still spectacular. The avenue is greener than before, and there are still cinemas nearby. »
2 p.m., the Champs start to get crowded. Tourists, phones in hand, go back towards the Arc de Triomphe, and pass busy Parisians in suits and ties, who are going down to lunch, and will leave the place once the working day is over. The only young people who are neither tourists nor workers hang out in groups. They advance slowly and smoke a few cigarettes in front of the large boutiques, fake Hermès bags slung over their shoulders. In Greek and Roman mythology, the Champs-Élysées is the place where the dead reside. On the avenue, only flashy luxury still vibrates.
