When Céline Dion was reported to have paid €47 million (£36 million) for a house in Villa Montmorency last week, the industrialists and showbiz stars who live in the most exclusive district of Paris were delighted.

The Canadian singer will be a welcome addition to a gated community that includes Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the President's wife, and Dominique Desseigne, Mr Sarkozy's billionaire friend.

But soon its 120 or so homeowners are likely to be confronted by some new neighbours they would rather keep at a distance - the urban poor.

In a move that has ignited furious protests, Bertrand Delanoë, the Mayor of Paris, has approved plans for 180 council flats in Porte d'Auteuil, across the road from Villa Montmorency in well-heeled west Paris.

Its rich and famous residents have signed petitions, berated MPs and complained that tenants will be able to see into their leafy and secret world from the tower block that Mr Delanoë wants to put up. Claudie Fournier-Christol, the chair of Porte d'Auteuil Environnement, a residents' association, accused the council of bringing “suburban crime” to the doorstep of France's “biggest taxpayers”.

The project is part of a programme to increase the number of council homes in Paris from 190,000 to 230,000 over the next six years to take the pressure off a waiting list of 110,000 people. With Mr Delanoë pledging to put social housing in middle and upper-class districts in the name of la mixité sociale - a policy designed to knock down barriers between the wealthy and the impoverished - controversy is inevitable.

Nowhere will it be fiercer than in Villa Montmorency, Paris's equivalent to Kensington Palace Gardens.

Built in the 19th century in the grounds of a château that belonged to an aristocratic family ruined by the revolution, the residence was originally a magnet for writers, thinkers and artists seeking a rural atmosphere in Paris. Today it has become a ghetto for les méga-riches.

Vincent Bollore, the media tycoon with a personal fortune of €4.3 billion, lives there, along with Xavier Niel, whose internet businesses have earned him a fortune of €2.7 billion.

Sylvie Vartan and Mylène Farmer, two of France's biggest pop singers, are neighbours. So is Mr Sarkozy. He stayed with Mr Desseigne, who owns the Lucien Barriè leisure group, for two months last year. Now the President spends more nights in his wife's house, which backs on to Villa Montmorency, than the Elysée Palace.

“I understand why they are fighting against council homes,” said Claude Goasgen, a councillor opposed to the plans. “They are going to get a ten-storey building under their noses.” City officials say the homes are needed for people who cannot afford private accommodation in the area.

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