Are you visiting Paris during the Christmas season? Were you hoping to sip spiced mulled wine, while browsing the Christmas decorations at a stall on the Champs Elysees? Unfortunately, you'd be out of luck, because Christmas is canceled this year – at least on the Champs Elysees. 

The city council has decided to ban the Christmas market that’s filled the world’s most famous shopping street every December for the last nine years – not on security grounds, but because the city believes tourists were being ripped off. 

Jean-Francois Martins, who is in charge of tourism on the city council, explained the decision by saying it sold overpriced, poor quality goods, calling them "not good enough for Paris." 

It’s a debate that pits the city against the man known as France’s "fairground king" – Marcel Campion, who runs the market and the Ferris wheel at one end of the avenue. His company has been investigated in the past for various offenses including money laundering and involvement in organized crime. 

Campion reacted to the decision by organizing a go-slow protest where his fairground workers blockaded the access roads to Paris one morning in November, causing enormous traffic jams. 

The city council has now voted that the Ferris wheel also has to go – much to the disappointment of tourists. "Well honestly I like it, I think it’s colorful and it gives the city a different kind of touch," said Pablo, an Erasmus exchange student from Spain. "It makes me really think of Christmas," his friend Cristina agreed.

The culture ministry says the Ferris wheel is illegally occupying a site of historic interest, but city hall’s main argument is simply that it ruins the view. City hall has promised the famous avenue will showcase an all-improved Christmas market in 2018, featuring products from the Paris region, and is currently inviting bidders to run it. There are certainly plenty of potential shoppers as last year the market had 15 million visitors.