Paris is great, it justifiably is one of the metropoles around which Europe seems to revolve and the Banks of the Seine show the finest parts of it. But I just want to focus on one specific part of the inscribed area.

“Oh Dad, THERE IS AN OBELISK! Can we go and visit it?”

Now I am a seriously proud Dad of a 5 year old that can not only recognise an obelisk, but gets properly excited by them, however at this precise moment I really didn’t want to indulge the request, partially because we were on a boat enjoying a cruise, but also I knew that this lump of Luxor that so enthused my daughter was in a place I hate above most other places I have visited on this World Heritage Site quest.

Yep, the obelisk was the famous one at the centre of Place de la Concorde.

But being somewhat weak willed and always wanting to reinforce any form heritage geekery from my family, we obviously disembarked at the next the Batobus quai. From here it was a short walk back up to Quai des Tuileries.

From here the grim visiting experience starts.

Before getting into details, I can understand that Place de la Concorde is an important place, I had so looked forward to visiting the first time I arrived two decades previously. In fact I think it is this discombobulation between what I expected and the reality is why I hate this “square” so much

We walked over from the quai (1,2-3,4,5,6) to the first reservation, then edged our way towards the centre nearer the start of the Champs Elysee (7,8), though to get there we crossed the start of the renowned boulevard for a view down to the Arc de triomphe (9,10,11,12-13,14,15,16). From here we stood waiting to cross into the centre to visit the obelisk (17,18,19,20-21,22,23,24). We viewed the obelisk, my daughter still impressed by it and she took some photos, then we headed off aiming to follow the inscribed core zone to Place de la Madeline. So we crossed from the centre toward Tuileries gardens (25,26,27,28-29,30,31,32) and after the reservation we headed off to the north (33,34) we stopped at the crossing before heading over the final road (35,36,37-38,39,40,41-42,43,44).

So there you go, crossing perhaps the most historic square in one of Europe’s most famous historic cities involved crossing 44 lanes of rather heavy traffic. That is utterly insane. 

Even the shortest crossing route walking east to west would require crossing 22 lanes, just short of Texas’s comical Katy Highway, the widest road in the world. 

What on earth possessed the city planners in Paris to look at one of their most famous destinations and decide to turn it into a freeway?

It utterly destroys the place.

Despite repeated visits over the last two decades I can barely identify it as a square. As a pedestrian the landscape is extremely hostile, you are just not welcome in what is supposedly a highlight of Paris, and I can’t imagine navigating in a car is any more welcoming, despite sacrificing the place to traffic it is just a sprawling void of lanes with minimal markings and cars at various angles as the 8 lanes suddenly split in different directions. (It isn’t a new phenomenon as this clip from German TV in the 80s illustrates). It seems that there is absolutely zero thought to anything in this square, it fails as an historic site, is hostile to pedestrians, confusing for motorists and I would assume lethal for cyclists.

Thankfully it seems that some sense has prevailed and the current plans are to reorganise the area and actually make it into a square again, a change that can’t come soon enough.

I really love Paris, but Place de la Concorde is one of the worst pieces of urban planning in contemporary Europe that has had a blind eye turned to it for far too long. The current situation's demise cannot come soon enough.

N.B.

To give some sort of comparison with the two other European capitals I know as well as Paris:

In London my commute from Waterloo Station south of the Thames to Tottenham Court Road in the northern part of central London covers about 2.5 km takes me about 35 mins and I will normally cross 21 lanes of traffic. 

And in Prague you can do a whole day of sightseeing covering all the major sites (Statue of St Wenceslas, all down Václavské náměstí, a circuit of the Staroměstská náměstí, through the old town, over Charles Bridge, explore Mala Strana, up to and through the castle, seeing the Golden Lane, before descending down to Wallenstein Gardens and getting on the metro at Malostranska without breaking through even 20 lanes of traffic, many of which give pedestrians priority.

So in both of these cases a major capital can be traversed crossing fewer lanes of traffic than the shortest route across this historic “square”.