One hundred days before the
Paris 2024 Olympic Games
, there is an "anticlimax" in
France
. The great global event does not excite the inhabitants too much, who are not very sporty and feel that the arrival of
15 million tourists
is going to force them to change their lives and their summer habits.
The international context tense by the wars in
Russia
and
Ukraine
, and now between
Israel
, the
Gaza Strip
and
Iran
, has plunged the country into “attack urgency”, the highest alert of the so-called "
Vigipirate
anti-terrorist plan
" . Armed military patrols tour the capital and reinforce tourist sites, synagogues and schools.
This climate of insecurity has forced the government to
issue a QR
so that everyone can register and be able to move around in security zones or visit their families, friends or restaurants in “safe” areas, which they would not otherwise be able to access. This registration operation will begin on May 10 and will be in effect from one week before July 26, the day of the opening ceremony, until September 8, when the Paralympic Games end.
It will be a total of 44 days
.
The migrants were moved to the interior of France to “not be seen
,” according to their feeling. Without notifying the mayors, buses with families began arriving to Orleans, Lyon and the towns of the Loire, with no accommodation planned. While the
“bookinists”
, who have been selling old books on the banks of the Seine for 400 years, won the battle and will not be forced to dismantle their green boxes during the Olympic Games. The measure, which had been justified for security reasons by the Prefect of Police, Laurent Núñez, has just been invalidated by President Emmanuel Macron.
The fear of an attack exists because ISIS-K, based in
Afghanistan
, has threatened France and attacks have already been dismantled. That is why the theatrical opening ceremony on the Seine River, with
170 boats and almost 300,000 guests,
is in doubt due to fear of an attack.
The balconies of the buildings along the Seine are rented and disputed. But there is a
danger of collapse
because they are old and cannot support more than 360 kilos each. Nobody is controlling those rents. But they do care about the
bridges
that cross the Seine so that they are not overcrowded and an accident occurs. They are still undergoing repairs.
President
Macron
, who had this idea to show the “grandeur” of France, is now talking about “a plan B and C” for the opening ceremony, such as festivities “limited to the Trocadero” and even an opening ceremony at the Stade from France.
The head of state understands the fears of some French people regarding the
terrorist risk
that could weigh on the Olympic Games, less than a year after the Arras attack, where a Chechen student beheaded a teacher, followed weeks later by a frustrated attack in Strasbourg . The president recognizes that one of the terrorists' objectives is to “prevent us from dreaming,” but promises to “filter” tourists and visitors to guarantee the security of ceremonies and events.
“The police are mobilized at an exceptional level. If there is a place where his son will be safe, it is there,” Macron told an
RMC
listener on Monday , worried about seeing his son attend the opening ceremony. “The Olympic Games happen once every 100 years!” he insisted.
Macron seeks and works for the “Olympic truce,” and announced that he will ask Chinese President
Xi Jinping
, with whom he will meet, to help him on this issue.
The President of the Republic refutes the idea that the desire to make France a “sports nation” would be a failure, as an RMC professor and listener implied. He assures that sports practice is at the center of his policy and mentions in particular the 30 minutes of mandatory sports in schools. Although he recognizes that certain teachers or establishments “play the game” in a more or less rigorous way.
French encyclopedic educational traditions are far from the sporting spirit that governs British schools. Macron hopes to place sports practice “at the center of the nation project” to transmit the values it represents: respect, tolerance and self-confidence. And he reaffirmed his
goal
of
placing the country in the top five
in the medal table at the Games.
Will Emmanuel Macron be one of the bearers of the Olympic torch during its immense relay to Paris? “We'll see if anyone invites me,” he said. The flame was lit this Tuesday in Olympia, Greece, in a ceremony inspired by antiquity. It is the beginning of a journey that will end in Paris on July 26. “I will be an amazed spectator,” said the head of state, who will be in
Marseille
on May 8 when he arrives in the metropolis.
Of course, Macron acknowledged that people with reduced mobility will not be able to get around easily in Paris or the Ile de France. “We are not completely living up to our expectations,” he admitted. He explained that the public transportation network has strengths and weaknesses. It is the densest subway in the world but at the same time one of the oldest. According to him, making the network meet the requirements for access for people with reduced mobility is an expensive step of several billion euros. The few elevators in the Metros are “out of service” and people with disabilities will have to confront the dizzying stairs of the Paris Metro.
Meanwhile, Tony Estanguet, president of the Organizing Committee, made it clear that “100% of the competition venues will have public transportation accessible to people with disabilities.”
Who will swim in the Seine?
The quality of the Seine
and
Marne
rivers
will be “one of the greatest legacies of the Games”, according to the president. But a respected NGO maintains that they are completely
contaminated with fecal matter
, despite the enormous filters placed near the Gare de Austerlitz.
Will Emmanuel Macron go swimming in the Seine, as he promised? It was the mayor of the city of Paris,
Anne Hidalgo
, who issued this challenge to the head of state, to which he responded that she would do it. She will also swim, in the most unhealthy Olympic gesture.
The Olympic and Paralympic Games are promoted as the “greenest” in history, with the aim of reducing carbon emissions by more than half compared to London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016. From cleaning the Seine to pedestrianization of busy streets,
Mayor Hidalgo hopes the Games will accelerate the city's green transition
. “I want them to be environmentally exemplary,” she said.
One of the ways organizers hope to reduce the carbon footprint is that the Olympic Village, where 10,500 Olympic and 4,400 Paralympic athletes will be housed, is not air-conditioned. Delegations will benefit from the natural cooling that has been built in, but with
the threat of another record summer in Paris
and previous heat-related deaths, some delegations are skeptical about staying cool without air conditioning.
A recent study warned of the possibility of weeks-long heat waves hitting the French capital during the Games. The last five years have been sweltering for Paris and in July 2019 Méteo-France recorded
a scorching 42.6 degrees
in the city.
Another study from May last year found the city had
the highest rates of heat-related deaths
among 854 European towns and cities. This was partly due to its lack of green spaces and its dense population.
Organizers ran simulations to see the impact of rescheduling outdoor events, to start earlier or later in the day, and ensuring indoor venues are built with
climate change
in mind .
Marathon runners, tennis players and beach volleyball players are considered
vulnerable
to the effects of extreme heat. Instead, three sites near the Seine River, between Saint-Ouen, Saint-Denis and L'Ile-Saint-Denis, have been designed to stay cool using a natural geothermal cooling system.
A mayor against the car
Mayor Hidalgo's obsession with cars is paying off. Despite the
hatred
that taxi drivers, delivery people and Parisians have for their policies not consulted with citizens, there will be no cars circulating in the city for the most part and
taxis
are planning summer vacations away from Paris.
The first world automobile exhibition was held in Paris in 1898, when Louis Renault, a young inventor from the capital, presented his first gasoline-powered vehicle. Now the city appears to be turning its back on his automotive heritage in favor of pedal power. A study reveals that
Parisians use bicycles more than cars
. There is no other alternative: the city became a massive construction site on the streets, until they became impassable. Touring Paris can mean wasting two hours driving.
“This mayor is the devil! I will lose a lot of money, but I'm going to my beach house in Tunisia. Driving in Paris will be the closest thing to hell. It already is. Nobody is going to stay here,” explained
Ahmed
, a French taxi driver of Tunisian origin, who plans to leave in July and return in September.
Researchers at the Paris Region Institute, the urban planning agency, equipped a sample of 3,337 residents with
GPS
trackers for six months. They found that 11 percent of Parisians' trips are made by bicycle, compared to 9 percent by car, 44 percent by foot, and 34 percent by public transportation. Motorcycles were used on 2 percent of trips. And another study by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies found last year that
only 33.5 percent of Parisian households own a car
.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games should cost
between three and five billion euros from the public treasury
, as estimated by Pierre Moscovici, the first president of the French Court of Auditors.
Parisians are going to receive the Games in the middle of the summer holidays. Many
have rented their apartments for between 12,000 and 30,000 euros per week
and will go to the beaches of the South coast, Spain or Greece until they are finished.
With 100 days to go until Paris 2024, the countdown has begun.