La Rochelle

Capital of the Charente-Maritime, La Rochelle is a touristic city on the French Atlantic coast well known for its postcard-pretty Old Port picture and the beautiful narrow streets of the Old town reflecting a rich and well-preserved architectural heritage. The city has been able to turn its solid maritime base into a fantastic economic, tourism and cultural asset developing the city and surroundings. In face of this urbanisation increasing numbers of cars the municipality aims to be a slow town, meaning that 80% of the streets will be limited to a speed of 30 km/h in the coming 2 years. In-line with slow town strategy and to maintain the attractiveness of commercial areas in the Old town the municipality wants to highlight the access and clarify the offer of parking spaces notably by making the underground car park attractive and pleasant. The idea is not to struggle against the car, but to show solutions and offer people the opportunity to experience life without the car, change behaviour and perspectives and be thus able to imagine a different use of the public space.

La Rochelle actually offers around 6300 parking places in the city center.