Paris to close Champs Elysees to cars one Sunday a month

PARIS (Reuters) - Paris' Champs Elysees avenue will be closed to cars one Sunday a month to let pedestrians reign supreme, the mayor of the French capital announced on Wednesday. Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo said her plans for the elegant boulevard, a focal point of the city often used for national ceremonies, was one of a series of environmentally friendly measures planned for 2016. Other plans include permanent pedestrianization, starting in summer, for a stretch of high-traffic road bordering the Seine's right bank. Thousands of Parisians strolled down the nearly two-kilometer (1.2-mile) Champs Elysees on the last Sunday of September when it was closed to cars as part of a Europe-wide day-without-cars event. Hidalgo said that all of Paris would be closed to cars when the event is held again this year. Lined with museums, theaters and luxury shops, the 10-lane Champs Elysees is a major tourist draw in one of the world's most visited cities. It is also a major east-west thoroughfare for one of the swankiest neighborhoods, running from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe. (Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)