Bistro owners square up to artists in Paris terrace wars
Painters of Montmartre say controversial installations during crisis and lockdown have left them ‘scandalised’
A BITTER “terrace war” has flared up between painters and restaurateurs for the heart of Montmartre in Paris.
Painters say they are “scandalised” at the bistros’ bid to stake a territorial claim for their chairs and tables in the hilltop district’s famed Place du Tertre at a time of national crisis and confinement.
The street artists of the bohemian cobbled square behind the Sacré Coeur basilica have long been a fixture of Montmartre, painting landscapes, portraits and caricatures for the 12million tourists who visit every year.
Open since 1635, the Place du Tertre became known as the “artists’ square” after the French Revolution and was a haunt of Van Gogh, Picasso, Toulouselautrec and Renoir.
Today, it is also ringed by dozens of cafes, bars and bistros. And while a recent bylaw gives street artists the right to ply their trade on the pavements, the space taken by restaurant tables and chairs has expanded.
Seven of the establishments now erect terraces right in the middle of the square six months per year to cater for hungry hordes.
Complaining that they have been relegated to “painting in the gutters”, the artists have recently threatened to move elsewhere.
The painters, who each pay more than €600 (£530) a month to share a square metre for two, have lost several legal bids to win back more space.
Against this backdrop of bad feeling, the artists were furious this week when they discovered that the municipal authorities had granted the bistros permission to set up their terraces in the middle of the square despite Paris and the rest of France being in lockdown to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
The lockdown is expected to go on well into next month.
In a letter to Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and local mayor Eric Lejoindre, they wrote: “While the whole country holds its breath, when everyone is expressing their solidarity by remaining confined, placing most of us in a precarious situation that is increasingly hard to bear, we are scandalised to note that you have authorised your services to install restaurateurs’ terraces on the Place du Tertre.”
They went on: “We need not remind you that all construction work has stopped, all maintenance services are strictly limited to ensure the security of our fellow citizens and that public services have been cut back to a strict minimum.
“How can you let this installation go ahead as if nothing was amiss when it flies in the face of the national effort to get out of this health tragedy as least painfully as possible?”
The restaurateurs replied through Philippe Meillhac, their lawyer.
Mr Meillhac told Le Parisien: “The owners are surprised and shocked by this new controversy initiated by the artists, or rather some among them.”
The town hall, he said, had given the green light at the start of lockdown but the construction company employed to set the terraces up had waited until early April to do so in anticipation of lockdown being relaxed.
Mr Meillhac said the restaurants would not start up business again until it was permitted, but it was vital to be in a position to open as soon as possible given the amount of revenues lost during confinement. He called on the artists to cease their “inappropriate” complaint immediately.
The town hall of the 18th arrondissement, which includes Montmartre, said it had no problem with the restaurateurs’ pre-emptive move to install the terraces.
But it added: “As long as the confinement continues, there will be no reopening [of bistros or terraces].”