STORY:
Paris moving forward on Millennium celebrations

With less than a year to go, the City of Paris is taking steps to usher in the Year 2000 in high style. Mayor Jean Tiberi has said his role is to "guarantee Paris' role as international capital," as the city hopes to capture millions of visitors for the year 2000 celebrations.

Planned rennovations include new footbridges across the Seine, high-speed trains and a bigger international airport.

Some of the cultural museums and icons are also undergoing a facelift. At the Notre Dame Cathedral plans include installing a state-of-the art restoration of the snarling gargoyles that had once been blackened by decades of acid rain, pollution and pigeon droppings. The restoration of "The Last Judgment," Notre Dame's elaborate front gates, also will be ready for Christmas 1999.

The George Pompidou Center, which has been closed for 1998 and 1999, is expected to reopen on New Year's Eve 1999, with revamped exhibition spaces, enlarged library and video facilities - and its bright-colored exterior buffed to its original gleam.

Also expected to reopen in the the Opera House designed by Charles Garnier in 1867. improvements include a $4.5 million overhaul which will restore color and contrast to the building's ornate facade, as well as repair cracked stone statues. The grand foyer will be outfitted with its original furnishings, and bronze candelabras and sculpted columns will be repaired.

A new footbridge crossing the Seine River in central Paris will connect the Tuileries to the Orsay Museum and another will stretch between the Bercy gardens and the new, four-tower National Library.

At the Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris, a third runway is scheduled to open in March to handle a 10 percent increase in travelers, from 35 to 38 million.

Parisians will also benefit from the last-minute sprint to complete Eole, a high-speed, east-west suburban train running under the capital with stops near two major railway stations. It is scheduled to begin operating in June.

DATE: 1/11/99

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