Paris In The Bleedin’ Springtime, Innit
The French – not usually a people who drop the ball when it comes to style – have not only recently dropped it but have also hoofed it out of the Stade de France
Specifically it’s their President’s fault. For Monsieur Sarkozy has expressed a desire to remodel Parisian suburbs after that apogee of English suburban design … Can you guess where?
Did the efficient grid systems of Milton Keynes pique his curiosity?
Nope.
Did the charming avenues of Welwyn Garden City tickle his French fancy?
Mais non!
No, it seems that Croydon has that certain je ne sais quoi that appeals to Le Pres. “Croydon, c’est incroyable!” he (probably never) exclaimed.
And so the Richard Rogers Partnership has been duly commissioned to create a suburban “hub”, with a modern, car-less (quel horreur!) transport system and so persuade swathes of inner-city Parisians to migrate outwards, away from their bohemian haunts and Baron Haussmann boulevards.
Yeah, right. And my grandma will win the Tour De France. Mind you, I do like the Pompidou, so maybe a bit of English will go down well in Paris.
Related Tags: Croydon, Suburb, Architecture & Design, ParisRelated Posts:
Posted by Gareth DaviesCategorised under Architecture & Design
This article currently has 2 comments
Well I knew Sarkozy was trying to win favour with the British – but destroying the Paris landscape is taking it a bit far!
He’s obviously still head over heels in lust, and struggling to think with his brains!
Considering the rather unpopular suburbs of paris locally known as the banlieu I can completely understand Sakozy’s wishes in copying the english design? Nobody in their right mind would want to live in or around the no-go zones(cities) of the paris banlieu, doesn’t anyone remember all the car burning last year. High rise flats have never been the best way of encouraging community intergration,as for the above comment of destroying parisien landscape,some landscape concrete HLM’s(High Rises). I think it would go a long way in getting rid of the us and them mentality of inner paris and the banlieu; Check-Point Charlie obviously being the périphérique ring road, concrete instead of barbed-wire, thankfully this will be on it’s way out in 2012. If we’re really interested in the Paris landscape leave old “Sarko” alone and concentrate instead on Bertrand Delanoé and his ugly high flung idea’s on the new skyscraper look of Paris. If we where meant to live so high wouldn’t God have given us wings!