Film buff's memories of the Champs-Élysées, by Éric Neuhoff

This article comes from “Figaro Magazine”

The event went almost unnoticed. Something is lost. What will we become? We will no longer walk up the Champs-Élysées and turn our heads towards XXL posters. In the past, the place was full of refuges where you could admire larger-than-life actors. That was it. From bottom to top, from the Roundabout, it didn't stop.

In the old Pariscope, the “8th arrondissement” section contained several pages. We had a choice. The Coliseum opened the ball (today, a telephone store). The Marignan was opposite the Embassy. Sports clothing is sold there. The George V has drawn the curtain. It will soon be a hotel. The Biarritz occupied a corner on the left sidewalk, before the Fouquet’s.

Also read On the Champs-Élysées, the UGC Normandie will permanently close its doors on June 13

There was also Le Triomphe, which programmed Emmanuelle for years. And Boris Vian who found nothing better to do than succumb to a heart attack in front of the adaptation of his I'll Spit on Your Graves during a screening at the Marbeuf. Poor Joe Dassin. He would no longer find everything he wanted nearby. Now, the Place de l’Etoile has been reduced to a minimum. Responsible: Mrs. Hidalgo, surly like an usherette who hasn't gotten her tip.

Let's be fair: there remains the Publicis, the only survivor with Le Balzac, in a perpendicular street. For how long?