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More than 4,000 people have gathered on the Champs-Élysées for a giant free picnic organised by a committee of local traders and businesses fighting to halt the slow decline of the boulevard long known as “the most beautiful avenue in the world”. Once a favourite haunt of Parisians, the Champs-Élysées has in recent years been steadily abandoned by local people as popular stores and cinemas have given way to luxury boutiques and the avenue has become the preserve of wealthy tourists. “It’s a way of telling Parisians: ‘Come back to the Champs-Élysées,’ to show them that the avenue isn’t just for high-end shopping,” said Marc-Antoine Jamet, head of the 180-member Champs-Élysées committee that organised the event.

About 273,000 people applied to take part in “le grand pique-nique”, with 4,400 selected to sit with up to six guests each on a 216 metre-long red-and-white checked picnic blanket, described by organisers as “the world’s largest tablecloth”. Eight partner restaurants – including the revered Fouquet’s brasserie, for decades a haunt of French film and music stars – provided meals for two separate sittings ranging from ham baguettes to caesar salads, crudités and macarons. “Thousands of people picnicking on one of the world’s best-known avenues, within sight of the Arc de Triomphe – that’s a true popular and gourmet celebration,” said the event’s guest of honour, the former Élysée Palace chef Guillaume Gomez.



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