Letter from Paris: January 29, 2025 News Digest

The Reuters headline says it all: “Paris’ Louvre museum, in dire state, cries for help.” The Guardian adds: “Visiting the Louvre has become a ‘physical ordeal’ as the throngs of tourists, leaks and substandard catering take a toll on the world’s most-visited museum, its director has said in a leaked memo. The document, written by Laurence des Cars for the French culture minister, Rachida Dati, but leaked to the media on Thursday, sounded the alarm over the state of the Paris museum.”
What are the complaints? Hard to find artworks, insufficient food facilities and bathrooms, and uncomfortable temperatures underneath I.M. Pei’s famous glass pyramid on hot summer days. A total of 8.7 million visitors went to the Louvre last year, while the museum is only designed to receive 4 million a year.
Indeed, yesterday President Emmanuel Macron made the announcement for a vast renovation project, including a new entrance to relieve congestion, and a newly created exhibition space for the Mona Lisa. As reported by The New York Times, “The goal is to welcome far more visitors than today — Mr. Macron set a target of 12 million visitors per year — in much better conditions.”

The grand staircase of the Palais Garnier. Image credit: Benh LIEU SONG/ Wikipedia Commons
The Opera Garnier celebrated 150 years with a grand gala. All marble and mosaic, the building is a glorious backdrop for a continuously packed program of performances, including ballet. Its history is fascinating, too. (Check out our story about what lurks underneath the opera house.) As recently reported by The New York Times, “The point of the Garnier Opera building was never just the show onstage. It was the show of being on display, particularly for the rising bourgeoisie that had profited off France’s booming industrial revolution.”

View of the principal façade of the Palais Garnier from the Place de l’Opéra, Photo Credit: Peter Rivera/Wikimedia Commons
Paris Fashion Week has brought a slew of A-listers to town. There was also a big stir over the NBA game held at the Accor Arena; cue the Wembymania. As reported by The Athletic: “It takes a lot to turn heads during Paris Fashion Week, but the homecoming of an NBA phenom did just that in the French capital. The 21-year-old San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama stirred a media frenzy and had fans of all ages screaming at the sight of him in his return to his home city this week for the first time since winning Olympic silver last summer.”
Traffic noise has dropped significantly in Paris, writes Le Monde in an interesting assessment of the changing cityscape. “Fifteen years of political and social change in the capital have shifted noise from the roads to bar and restaurant terraces. As car noise levels have fallen, individual loud sounds have become more noticeable and less tolerated by local residents.” Oh, and there’s even an organization called Bruitparif responsible for measuring noise pollution in the Paris region… Read the full article here.

Traffic. (C) Unsplash
Since its reopening (the launch of regular visiting hours on December 16th), Notre Dame has welcomed 860,000 visitors — an average of 1,920 visitors per hour. A third of these are taking advantage of the free online ticketing system, which gets you in the cathedral quickly at a designated time slot. (Otherwise you can wait in line.) For an inside peek at the glorious restoration, check out our article here.

The Seine next to Notre-Dame. © Martha Sessums
Have you seen the big construction project in front of the Hotel de Ville? The forecourt is being transformed into an “urban forest,” to bring down the temperatures in the summer and offer shade on hot days. The first trees were planted this month — some are already 10 meters tall. (They were grown in Dutch and German nurseries.) These trees — including maples and American honey locusts — were chosen based on their resilience to climate change and the challenges of an urban environment. This is the third such forêt urbaine after the Place de Catalogne and the Bois de Charonne. There will be a total of four groves (and 150 newly planted trees) at the Hotel de Ville.

Hotel de Ville. © Ruby Boukabou
On January 27th, Paris commemorated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The Mémorial de la Shoah, in partnership with the city, is creating a digital app in memory of the 935 Jewish children (not in school, therefore there’s little information) who were deported during the Second World War. This app will provide photos and biographical information, when possible, associated with the names engraved on garden steles. A total of 6200 Jewish children were deported from Paris during the war.
Lead photo credit : The Louvre Museum. Photo: Seryani/Flickr