Paris’ Champs-Elysees dresses up in country clothes to honor Mother Nature

Champs-Elysees goes country to show off Nature

PARIS — Want a stroll in the country right in the heart of Paris? Head for the Champs-Elysees, the French capital’s most famous avenue.

It’s tossed out its city dress and gone country — transformed into a vast garden of flowers, herbs and crops, and replete with farm animals.

The two-day event that started Sunday during a holiday period in France was drawing thousands of Parisians and tourists strolling down the country lane, crowned by the Arc de Triomphe.

It’s aimed at instructing citydwellers in the values of Mother Nature while highlighting the work of France’s farmers.

Gad Weil, whose Nature Capital group conceived the project, says, “It’s a way to remind people that man lives at the heart of nature.” Nature, he said, is “our heritage.”