“As the lights of human industrial civilization go dark, never to return again. Au revoir Paris.”
– Mike
Ruppert
Paris Faces Darkness as City of Light Set for Illumination Ban
Paris’s legendary label as the “City of Light” may soon lose some of its lustre.
Bloomberg,
5 December, 2012
The
French minister for energy and environment unveiled last week a
proposal for lights in and outside shops, offices, and public
buildings -- including the flagship Louis Vuitton store and the Lido
cabaret house on Paris’s Avenue des Champs Elysees -- to be turned
off between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. starting in July. The plan, to be
applied across French cities, towns and villages, is aimed at saving
energy and money and showing “sobriety,” Minister Delphine Batho
said.
The
move has provoked an outcry from merchants, who say the government is
being insensitive to France’s image as the world’s No. 1 tourist
destination. They say the rule, on top of existing bans on Sunday
store openings and night shopping, will hurt business at a time when
the French economy has barely grown for a year and unemployment is at
a 14-year high.
“Great!
Another positive message sent to citizens and to tourists: the city
will go dark!” said Sofy Mulle, vice- president of the France’s
Commerce Council, which represents all of the country’s 650,000
merchants employing about 3.5 million people. “We are ready to make
efforts, but the government is cutting a fine line between sobriety
and austerity. Surely, we can work out environmentally friendly
solutions that have less impact on our society and our economy.”
For
Paris, the government’s plan -- final details of which are still
being worked out -- is likely to fray its historical banner of “La
Ville Lumiere,” earned both because of its fame as a center of
ideas and learning in the Age of Enlightenment and later by its early
adoption of street lighting.
Sarkozy
Plan
The
lights-out idea, mooted under former President Nicolas Sarkozy, is
being pushed through by the Socialist government of President
Francois Hollande, who was elected in May.
Sarkozy’s
effort was part of a broader European plan to improve energy
efficiency by 20 percent by 2020. In January, his government passed a
measure that took effect in July, forcing stores and businesses to
turn off neon lights highlighting their names -- of which there are
3.5 million in France, according to the energy ministry -- between 1
a.m. and 6 a.m.
“The
original plan was crazy: they wanted to have all lights turned off
one hour after store closures,” Claude Boulle, head of the City
Centre Merchants association said.
Merchants,
including Boulle and Mulle, said part of their image is to have
non-stop lighting because it conveys the idea of a place that’s
always warmly welcoming for shoppers.
“Also,
lights from buildings and shops are part of public lighting and it
brings security,” Boulle said. “Even if there aren’t millions
of people taking a stroll in the middle of the night, light still
means security for those who are.”
‘A
Museum’
Beyond
security, Boulle said the plan would further diminish Paris’s
allure as a shopping destination when stacked up against London,
Madrid or Berlin.
“We’re
becoming a museum, falling asleep after sunset,” he said.
Paris’s
large department stores such as Galeries Lafayette and Printemps in
the center of the French capital are famous for their elaborately
designed window displays -- especially during Christmas -- that stay
on all night, making them tourist attractions all on their own.
Officials at the two stores declined to comment on the new rule.
Shop
windows on the Avenue des Champs Elysees and on Avenue Montaigne,
Paris’s Rodeo Drive, will also go dark.
The
city’s tourism board recommends “Parisian Urban Pleasures,”
including night strolls through the capital’s winding streets and
along the Seine river and morning espressos in famous cafes.
Tourism
Industry
The
“petit bonheurs,” or small pleasures, include a night promenade
on the Pont de Arts and waiting for sunrise on the steps of Sacre
Coeur basilica, on the hillock behind the Pigalle area. All of these
pleasures may be dimmed by the new rule.
The
tourism industry accounts for 6.5 percent of French gross domestic
product and directly employs 900,000 people, according to government
figures.
According
to the tourism board’s data for 2011, Paris drew 8.5 million
foreign visitors who stayed for at least one night in a hotel and
spent an average of 146 euros ($191) a day. London got 15.2 million
visitors spending 102 pounds ($164) a day. New York City got 10.6
million visitors, Shanghai about 8 million.
France
remained the world’s most-visited country with 81.4 million foreign
tourists last year, a rebound after three consecutive years of
decreases.
Eiffel
Tower
The
Energy Ministry says the rule won’t mark a big change from the
current situation, pointing out that lights at Paris’s 304
monuments, churches, statues, fountains and bridges, are already
being turned off at night.
The
Eiffel Tower’s lights are turned off at 1 a.m. after a last
glittery splash. Over the last decade, the illumination of the Notre
Dame cathedral has been brought down to 9,000 watts from 54,000
watts.
Denis
Baupin, a former Greens aide to Paris Mayor Betrand Delanoe, had
pledged to cut the city’s public lighting consumption by 30 percent
by 2020 from its 2004 levels.
“One
of our main objectives is to change the culture,” Energy Minister
Batho said on Nov. 29 on BFM Television and RMC Radio. “We need to
end the cycle of producing more because we are consuming more. There
should be sobriety in energy use.”
To
be sure, the measure has its supporters. Beyond the Green party,
activist groups including the Neon Clan, Energy Fishermen or Zero
Watt have led actions to unplug illuminated shop signs and
advertisement boards, including those of BNP Paribas SA bank, SFR
mobile phone shops and a Club Med store in the town of Grenoble in
the French Alps last July.
Misplaced
Project?
France’s
Association to Protect the Sky and the Night Environment, which
participated in government talks to write the rule, says the law will
help France be more energy efficient.
Night
lighting uses the energy produced by one nuclear plant of 1,300
megawatts in one night, the association says.
“There
is no intention to put us all into darkness or frighten Japanese
tourists,” said Alain Fleury, an ANPCEN representative. “We can
find a balanced way to consume and not always push for more, brighter
or stronger. We are wasting too much,” Fleury looks after the Paris
suburban area, which is home to Disneyland Paris.
He
said French towns and villages waste the most energy, while Paris is
heading on the right path.
“I
hear those who say it shouldn’t become a sleepy museum,” he said.
“Surely, there is a middle way.”
For
light-bulb -and lighting-systems makers, the government’s project
is misplaced.
Only
10 percent of France’s total lighting consumption is made at night,
the industry says, calling on other, more efficient energy savings.
“Lighting
has a social role, it serves as a reference point,” said Elise
Bourmeau, vice-president of the Lighting Union. “We will adapt. But
truly, there are solutions that would allow us to keep them on in an
energy efficient way.”
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