The lights will go out in several French cities this Saturday, March 22 in the evening, and it will not be a simple power outage.
This Saturday, March 22 in the evening, you might see the lights of your city die sooner than usual. Your town could be immersed in darkness, especially if you live in Paris, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lyon, Rouen, Strasbourg and Lille. Rest assured, it will only last 60 minutes.
Emblematic monuments will also be extinguished such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, Notre-Dame de Paris but also the Grand Théâtre in Bordeaux, or the Hôtel de Ville de Lyon. The city of Lyon thus specifies on its site That “all the lighting of the emblematic buildings of the city will be extinguished this Saturday, March 22 at 8:30 p.m., or nearly 370 sites usually brought to light from the nightfall at 10 p.m. on Saturday. The functional lighting of the streets will be maintained on”.
Some companies will do the same, such as the TF1 group which will turn off its tower in Boulogne-Billancourt or even Radio Francewho confirmed that “the light brand of the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique will be extinguished as well as all of the households and the tower”.
So, from 8:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m., don’t be surprised if lights go out in your city. You are also invited to participate personally, in particular by cutting all the non -essential electrical devices in this time niche.
It is, in fact, a new edition of “Earth Hour”, a great world mobilization for the planet, of which WWF has been at the head since 2007 and which today affects 185 countries. Each year, thousands of cities around the world participate in support of the protection of the planet and are “symbolically plunged into the dark”. This event highlights the reduction in energy consumption as well as light pollution. “Earth Hour is not just a symbolic gesture, it is an urgent response to the current environmental crisis! Through this event, we recall the need to act: in just 50 years, the populations studied of wild vertebrate animals have dropped by 73 %, according to our living planet report 2024. Freshwater ecosystems are the most affected, with an 85 %decline” press release.
The organization also plans this year an unprecedented day event in Paris, Rouen and Marseille in order to encourage “a reconnection with nature and a discovery of biodiversity”. Residents will be invited to carry out a “Earth Hour” mission to be raised with family or friends.