Paris Says No More Clothing Stores On Champs Elysées

"Created in 1640 by André Le Nôtre, the landscape gardener, the avenue was widely seen as down-at-heel in the 1980s before Jacques Chirac ordered an overhaul when he was Mayor of Paris. It has since developed a split personality. Retail chains have swarmed to the sunny, north side, which attracts more pedestrians, while luxury goods groups have gone to the south side. A year ago Louis Vuitton invited Uma Thurman and Sharon Stone to re-open its renovated south-side shop, where its monogrammed bags sell for several hundred euros each."

"However, Bertrand Delanoë, the Mayor of Paris, has ordered a 'mobilisation plan' to prevent restaurants and cinemas from being squeezed out by the likes of Gap and Guerlain."

"'There is a risk that the Champs Elysées could become banal,' Lynne Cohen-Solal, head of planning at Paris's city council, said. 'We have nothing against H&M.' Nevertheless, she pointed out that clothes occupied 39 per cent of the retail space on the avenue, which was 'the maximum'."

"Although the Champs Elysées is the third most expensive street in the world for retailers -- behind Fifth Avenue, New York, and Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, and ahead of New Bond Street in London -- most chains say that the price is worth paying. They say that stores on les Champs -- where the average monthly rent has risen from €6,287 per square metre in 2004 to €6,775 -- generate bigger sales than those anywhere else in France."

Thanks to ArchNewsNow