Residents of Paris’s ‘most Instagrammed’ street request gates to keep out influencers
Locals have had enough
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Your support makes all the difference.Search for ‘Rue de Crémieux’ on Instagram and you’ll find an endless stream of pictures of trendy young things wearing carefully curated outfits and standing against a background of pretty houses in pastel hues.
With its cobbles underfoot, colourful buildings and array of streetside potted plants, this is one of the most Instagrammed streets in Paris – and locals have had enough.
Wannabe influencers are turning up in droves for a selfie against this picturesque backdrop, with “no respect for privacy”.
It’s become such a problem that now a local neighbourhood association is lobbying city authorities to put up gates to keep out social media users.
“It may be a photographer’s paradise but for us it’s turned into hell here,” Antoine, a member of the association, told The Telegraph.
He said that at weekends there are often around 200 people on the street taking pictures outside.
“Our dining table is beside the window, and there are people just outside taking photos – rappers who take two hours to film a video under our windows or hen parties with people screaming for an hour,” he added. “Frankly, it wears you down.”
Fellow resident Anne agreed that things had gone too far, with hundreds descending upon the narrow street every weekend. “They seem to think it’s a public space and they don’t have to respect our privacy,” she said.
Antoine has taken to putting up barricade tape to keep social media snappers away from his pale blue house.
His residents’ association has requested the 12th arrondissement town hall close the street at weekends and after a certain time each evening to keep out unwanted visitors.
“This is something that is done in private streets in Paris that have gates,” Antoine said.
City officials have said they are keen to find a solution before the summer and are looking at a number of possibilities.
It’s not the first destination to receive an unwanted popularity boost thanks to Instagram.
Residential buildings in Hong Kong’s Quarry Bay have become unlikely social media catnip after featuring as a location in the most recent Transformers blockbuster and the remake of the Japanese manga classic Ghost in the Shell.
Influencers queue for a turn in front of the symmetrical apartment blocks, and have allegedly pushed elderly residents, who used to play cards in the middle of the courtyard, to set up their game in a dark corner instead so as not to be in the way.
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