At the foot of Butte Montmartre in Paris, dozens of coaches deposit and collect their waves of tourists, park in double file or turn on the boulevard. “An invasion” according to Julie Meynard, Riveraine and discomfort that alarm the City Council.
Near this resident of the Northern District of Paris for 10 years, a bus has hidden in a crosswalk, blocking access to its street. “A perfect illustration of what is happening all the time,” sighs the company coach who launched a request on the Change.org platform to try to move public authorities to what she considers as a result of “Southbourisme”.
This summer, while the capital has recovered its level of pre-pandemic tourist assistance, the Paris City Council has just begun to point out an “abundant” in certain districts: Montmartre, the surroundings of the Eiffel Tower, those of the Pantheon in the Latin District, the champions-ellysées …
“We have to stabilize the number of tourists in Paris, we have to regulate,” said Frédéric Hocquard, assistant to the mayor of Paris in charge of tourism and nightlife. Grand Paris, which brings together the capital and its small crown, told 36.3 million visitors in 2024.
In the objective of the City Council: coaches. “Between 500 and 600 buses of the Tours operators” on average they access the capital every day, causing “hyperactivity and an excess of space of the space”, alerts the elected official, who finally wishes to “exclude tourist coaches” in the city.
“Do not stigmatize this mode of transport”
These coaches, of 95% of which circulated in Diesel on January 1, 2024, according to the authorities, are rented by travel agencies for Torres of a few days throughout the capital.
For Mert Oz, the Turkish tourist guide that speaks with its bus parked at the foot of the Montmartre hill, it is impossible to use public transport. “It is not easy to travel with the subway because we have 40 (…), I can forget some people,” he said.
“Solo, I don’t know how to travel in this city,” said Aiden Zhang, a Chinese tourist just descended from his bus a little more, while one of his compatriots shows photos of Notre-Dame, the previous stage of his two-day trip.
This form of tourism in the light city is firmly defended by the coaches. “We must not stigmatize this mode of transport that is highly developed abroad, and that would be a very important deficit for the entire tourist chain,” said Ingrid Mareschal, general delegate of the National Federation of Travelers.
Discomfort for residents
The discomfort experienced by residents are linked, according to her, to a reduction in the parking spaces of the City Council, pressing certain buses so as not to comply with the regulations.
Among the dozens of coaches aligned in the Boulevard Haussmann, near the department stores, Gilberto Almeida is in warnings to the edge of a cycling route. The 58 -year -old driver has just received a fine of 135 euros per prohibited parking in a bus lane near Olympia, famous Music Hall, explains before disappearing when his passengers hurry.
This conflict between coaches and the City Council is not recent. At the time of the entry into force of the Limited Traffic Area in the center of Paris last November, the coaches had escaped extremely in a total prohibition of traffic in the four interested districts.
Source: BFM TV
