“Sobriety, but not strictness“. Strasbourg’s Christmas fair aims to reduce its electricity consumption by 10% this year by reducing lighting, the environmental municipality announced on Thursday. Opening on November 25, the market, like every year, will host more than 300 chalets spread across the Alsace capital, where a 30-meter-high tree will be erected. But this symbolChristmas capitalThis year, it will be fully paid from 1 to 5, Mayor Zhanna Barseghyan announced to journalists. the tree”will shine brightly from 4 to 11 p.m.he clarified. The rest of the time it will be in a more sober mode, but it will be very elegant, very beautiful“.
The new law banning heating in open-air shops will obviously apply to chalets.”who will also have to turn off their outdoor lighting at 8 p.m.added the first city councilor. Overall, Strasbourg predicts a 10% drop in market energy consumption compared to previous years, as well as a 20% reduction in light points. “Of course, the energy crisis is hitting us hardsaid Ms. Barseghyan. but I remain convinced that in these crisis times (…) we need magical moments (and) of cohesion, and so the light will shine in Strasbourg at Christmas, but in a more sober way“.
No artificial trees
The capital of Alsace does not intend to do without a natural fir tree, as did the ecological municipality of Bordeaux, which established a glass and steel tree last year. The height of artificial structures does not exceed 20 meters, said Deputy Mayor Guillaume Liebsig, while the city “wants a fancy tree» 30 meters high. the man”could not surpass nature“, he noted.
The city of Strasbourg caused controversy in October by presenting a list of items allowed for sale at the Christmas market, rejecting, for example, the name “validity» Crosses of Christ made in Asia. Ms Barseghian stressed on Thursday that these regulations were expected to be in place by Christmas 2023 and welcomed the increase in reservations in the wake of the recent controversy. “It’s going to be busy and bookings are at an all-time high, hoteliers tell us“, he reported.
Source: Le Figaro
