I regularly go over there with Staff Ri... sorry, sorry, Ex: We Are Not Allowed To Call Them Staff Rides Anymore, and rjtjrt is correct. The French do take this very seriously, as a quick shufti at the story reveals.
The Mail is running a story which is, in fact, about two months old - the locals have been all over this, at DEFCON Prepare to Launch Tractors on Paris, since the middle of April, as a search on google will demonstrate.
When the idea gets kicked into touch, I daresay that this will be another of those 'victory for the Daily Mail' headlines, when the hard work will in fact have been done as a result of protests by the locals, who appear - unless they work for the tourist board - to be vehemently against it...