仏パリ各所で改修工事　戻った観光客から不満の声

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】新型コロナウイルス感染症の流行から２年、仏パリに観光客の姿がようやく戻った。だが、エッフェル塔やノートルダム大聖堂などの人気の観光地では改修工事が行われており、多くから不満の声が上がっている。（写真は工事現場から見えるエッフェル塔）
　２０２４年のパリ五輪を控え、ルーブル美術館や国立グランパレ美術館といった世界的に有名な建物の周囲には仮設の足場や囲い、作業の表示板などが置かれ、記念のスナップショットを求める観光客は落胆の色を隠せない。
　ペルーから来た観光客のマリア・パス・リンデマンさんとエルネスト・シルバさんは、エッフェル塔の周囲に置かれた足場によって難しい写真撮影を強いられた。「足場があまり写り込まないベストな位置を探しているのですが（中略）完璧な写真を撮れる場所はありません」
　２０１９年の大規模火災で一部崩壊し、大がかりな修復作業が行われているノートルダム大聖堂でも肩を落とす観光客の姿が見られる。
　米国からの観光客はＡＦＰに「エッフェル塔も工事中で良い写真が撮れませんでしたが、それでもここほどではなかったです！」と残念がった。
　パリを訪れる観光客の数は増えており、コロナ前の水準に戻りつつある。
　市当局によると、今年の１月から５月までに約１２１０万人がパリを訪れており、２０１９年の同じ時期と比べても、その差はわずか約３００万人だった。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/06/23-15:55）

Tourists can finally flock to Paris after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic but many are frustrated by the construction works spoiling views of famous sights such as the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral.
Monuments including the Louvre museum and Grand Palais are covered with scaffolding, wooden fencing or billboards as the City of Light gears up to host the Olympics in 2024, sparking disappointment in tourists looking for the perfect snap.
It's a shame this area is under construction because it's also the most emblematic part of Paris, said Spanish tourist Eva Caro, as she wandered around the Trocadero esplanade overlooking the Seine river.
Every year millions of tourists head to Trocadero as it offers a picture-perfect view of the Eiffel Tower -- used as a backdrop countless times by celebrities and fashion models.
But the lengthy renovation works on the esplanade, which are nearing their end, pepper the horizon with fences and make the hunt for the ideal photo for social media more challenging.
Finally after Covid, we get to come here ... I don't know if this is a temporary construction or whatever but it's bugging me, said Tami Agmon, a doctor on holiday from Israel.
As the sun beats down on the dozens of tourists massed on the square, some climb a barricade to try and capture the iconic monument built by Gustave Eiffel for the Universal Exposition in 1889.
I think it's dangerous to have to go up (on the wall) because we could fall and it would ruin the trip, said Caro, who climbed up to get a snap with her hands making a heart around the Iron Lady.
-'Very disappointing'-
French tourist Francine Cabrier, who has come from the Alps where she works as a city hall employee, is even more annoyed.
Frankly, it's very, very disappointing. It's a shame! To take a photo you need to be much farther away. It's a waste! she told AFP.
Across the Seine at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, scaffolding around the monument in the midst of a makeover forced tourists Maria Paz Lindeman and Ernesto Silva to lean down for a low angle shot.
We were just wondering which was the best side to not see so much scaffolding... There's no place where you can take the perfect picture, said Lindeman, a Peruvian schoolteacher.
It's a similar story in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, which is undergoing extensive renovation works after the 2019 fire that almost burned the Gothic monument to the ground.
We were at the Eiffel Tower and our pictures were ruined a little bit because of the construction going on there but nothing as much as over here! said American tourist Steven Engelberg.
-'Paris is Paris'-
Parisian monuments have opted for different techniques to ease the eyesore -- the Madeleine Church is covered with a billboard featuring Mont Saint Michel, while the National Assembly -- parliament -- opted to reproduce its own facade.
At the foot of the obelisk on the Place de la Concorde, tour guide Thierry Collegia told AFP he faces questions about the extensive construction works.
I mainly tell them that it's because of the 2024 Olympics, said Collegia, adding that mostly tourists were delighted to be back in Paris.
And there are so many monuments in Paris to admire that if some are undergoing building work, it's not such a big deal, he added.
Paris is clocking up visitor numbers that resemble those before the Covid-19 pandemic brought trips to a stop.
Some 12.1 million people visited the capital between January and May 2022, only three million fewer than during the same period in 2019, according to City Hall.
Colombian lawyer Gloria Ramirez, 56, said she did not regret crossing the Atlantic.
We would have come anyway even if we had known about the construction works. It's not a problem -- Paris is Paris, she said.