car-free first Sundays on the Champs Elysées

Imagine a rainy April afternoon on the Champs Elysées, umbrella-toting pedestrians walking down the sidewalks, looking into the shop windows, gazing up the incline to the Arc du Triomphe. What would this scene look like with the streets free of automobile traffic, with the entire wide avenue open to shoppers and tourists.

You won't need to imagine much longer. Coming soon are car-free "first Sundays" on the Champs Elysées. The avenue will be transformed into the most glorious pedestrian mall in the world. Free of the noise and exhaust of cars, visitors to Paris will be able to stroll freely down the entire length of the street, from the Arc de Triomphe in the west to the Place de la Concorde in the east.

It all begins April 3, 2016 and every first Sunday thereafter. Here's hoping the experiment works!


Where should you stay if you want to walk the Champs Elysées? The three closest Virtuoso hotels are Fouquet's Barriere, the Lancaster, and La Reserve (designated by the three red dots from left to right on the map below).

There are many more great hotel choices within a few blocks of the Champs Elysées — Four Seasons George V, Prince de Galles, Plaza Athenée, and Le Royal Monceau. But don't book your Paris hotel online; check out the great Virtuoso amenities you can get from a Virtuoso travel consultant — typically for the same price you're seeing online. Free breakfasts, hotel credits, room upgrades (some guaranteed at booking), etc. The perks differ by property, but check them all out at Virtuoso.com.

P.S. — We get even better-than-Virtuoso perks at Four Seasons George V, Le Meurice, Plaza Athenee, Peninsula Paris, and Mandarin Oriental Paris.

copyright (c) 2016 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.