Place de la Paix

When I went into town to the market last weekend, I took a quick peek at the renovation work going on in the market square, Place de la Paix. The new trees, benches, and light fixtures aren't installed yet, but the paving is pretty much done.

The northeast corner of the place with St.-Aignan's collégiale church behind.

The work has taken many months. The old trees had to come out. Then the old asphalt pavement and sidewalks were removed. After that, all the utilities under the place from electricity to water to sewer had to be upgraded.

The northwest corner.

Then the sidewalks were rebuilt and the new paving started. Every paving stone is laid by hand, of course, and pounded into the carefully constructed base of stone and sand. No wonder it took a while.

Looking southwest. The square boxes are tree planters.

Last weekend they had started to seal the pavers with some kind of coating. It was all very sticky and very shiny. I don't remember that shiny stuff going on the main streets in town when those were done six years ago, but I'm hoping the sheen wears off soon and it all blends together.

The southeast corner will be the last section to get sealed.

I may go to the market again on Saturday to check on the progress. Then, in a week (August 14) the work should be over and the market will be back in the center of town instead of on the edge. I'll be sure to take more photos at that point.

Looking northeast again.

From what I'm told, the new place will have fewer parking spots and parking time will be reduced from the current two hours to more like twenty minutes. This is not a big problem for us since there is plenty of parking around the edge of the small town including a newly-expanded lot about five minutes away on foot. But it will still provide some parking for those who can't walk so far.