Paris - The Place de la Concorde, in theory the grandest and most harmoniously designed square of the French capital but in practice a snarling, honking, downright terrifying object lesson in Parisian driving habits, could be free of cars by 2000 under ambitious new plans announced yesterday by the city's mayor.
Mr Jean Tiberi is studying proposals to turn the 17-acre square, which an American humorist once suggested should be renamed the "Place de la traffic coming from 13 different directions at 100 mph", into a pedestrian zone, returning one of Paris's most historic sites to the people.