Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Madame la Maire
Paris has a history of political subversiveness, and while it's no longer the radical hotbed it
once was, it continues to reveal an independent streak that runs counter to nationwide senti-
ment. This was most recently on display during the April 2014 municipal elections. While
the vast majority of the country swung decisively to the right - political payback for Presid-
ent François Hollande's seemingly ineffectual policies - the capital remained resolutely left.
But the big story was not that Parisians stuck with the eco-leaning Socialists for a third
straight term, but rather that the election's two leading candidates were women: the Spanish-
born deputy mayor Anne Hidalgo, and the former minister of ecology, Nathalie Kosciusko-
Morizet. Hidalgo won with a substantial 55% of the vote, becoming the first-ever female
mayor of Paris.
Greater Paris
Most visitors to Paris - and, in fact, many French - continue to think of the city as a self-
contained whole, with limits that are both physically and conceptually defined by the traffic-
snarled boulevard Périphérique - the ring road that stands on the site of the former city
walls. This vision, however, is a far cry from reality: the vast majority of Parisians (8.2 mil-
lion) now live in the adjacent suburbs, compared with only 2.2 million residents who live in
the city proper. The steadily growing suburban population - indeed, the real-estate boom of
the past decade has pushed most middle-class residents and large companies outside the
Périphérique - has created a real need to redefine Paris, on both an administrative and infra-
structural scale.
Enter the Grand Paris (Greater Paris) redevelopment project, a Sarkozy-era initiative. The
crux of Grand Paris is a massive decentralised metro expansion, with 72 new stations and
six suburban lines, with a target completion date of 2025. The principal goal is to connect
the suburbs with one another, instead of relying on a central inner-city hub from which all
lines radiate outwards (the current model).
In terms of administration, it is expected that the surrounding suburbs - Vincennes,
Neuilly, Issy, St-Denis etc - will eventually lose their autonomy and become part of a much
larger Grand Paris, all governed by the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall). It is no done deal,
however, as uniting the wildly diverse municipalities will be no easy feat.
Green Transportation
Fundamentally interconnected with Grand Paris is the issue of transportation. Former mayor
Bertrand Delanoë introduced several controversial but ultimately popular green initiatives
