In the summer of Olympics, ode to an autumn in Paris
On a cold Fall night in September 2023, I took a cruise with a few of my ‘amis fantastiques’ over the Seine river in Paris. The sun had just set and the lights on the Eiffel Tower had come up. ‘The City of Light and Love’ looked surreal.
Seine was not quiet.
As the ferry cruised on under the bridges, you could see the banks filled with people eating, drinking, and just seizing the day, rather night. Yonder, there was the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre Museum standing tall, spelling out the grandeur of the centuries-old architecture.
Seine was waiting though! For the summer of 2024 and the Olympic Games.
Back on the roads, early in the morning, the traffic was buzzing. The holidays had ended, the people were getting back to work, and children were on their way to school. The outdoor cafes and restaurants were crowded. Was the city going to host 15 million visitors the following year? The biggest sporting event is just a few months away? Apart from some scaffolding work happening, it didn’t quite seem though!
In August of 2024, as the Olympic Games is in full swing in Paris, the French are basking in the heat of the Games, whether they are in the city or not, whether the Seine is clean or not, or whether the influx of tourists is more or less.
Maxime Dufossez (32) is from Pau, Aquitaine but had lived for several years in Bayonne, in the Basque Country. Dufossez has a connection to sports -- he has played basketball, volleyball, and soccer.
"The Olympics in France is a celebration I've been looking forward to for a long time,” he said.
He has played various team sports and grew up in a very sporty family. “It's a magical moment for every French athlete to see the world's most important sporting event taking place on our soil,” he said.
Dufossez finds it simply magnificent to see his generation (20-35 years old) trying to become Olympic champions, especially on his home turf. “I've even had the chance to compete against some of these athletes, like the French volleyball players of my generation," he recollected with pride.
Niranajana Kallatte, an Indian settled in Paris, assisted during the tennis match of legends Rafael Nadal versus Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros. “I also had an opportunity to hold the replica of the Olympic torch. I had read that it’s made of recycled metal by ArcelorMittal,” she said.
She visited the Tuileries Gardens to see the Olympic Cauldron. “The Cauldron flies more than 60 metres above the Tuileries Gardens from sunset until 2 am. It’s wonderful to see the rising cauldron in the background of the sparkling Eiffel Tower.
She narrated how children are soaked in Olympic colours, their cheeks painted with the colours of the French flag and how they bring in a certain vibration to the stadium. “People are searching for tickets to assist any Olympic event and the ticket prices are soaring,” Kallatte said.
By all accounts, the Paris Olympics has its Achilles’ heels. Small businesses near Seine are affected because of the heightened security. Many Parisians left the city and won’t return till the Games are over.
"The Olympic Games are taking place in Paris as well as in Tahiti, so our region is not directly affected by this sporting event,” Dufossez said.
The French government, he said, has implemented a strict security system throughout the capital, particularly around the sites hosting the sporting events.
These security perimeters lead to access restrictions, and it is necessary to have permits from the Paris City Hall. These restrictions do not apply to pedestrians and cyclists. The areas around La Concorde, Trocadéro, Champs de Mars, Invalides, and Saint-Denis are completely closed to vehicular traffic, representing about 15 per cent of the capital. These restrictions have a significant impact on business activities, particularly in the hospitality and restaurant sectors, he said.
Since June, the zone restrictions, metal barriers, and police patrols have not been beneficial for businesses. Hosting the Olympics mainly creates transportation difficulties for Parisians and a significant loss of revenue for restaurants in the Olympic zone. A few months ago, nearly one in two Parisians was considering leaving the capital in August, he explained.
“Fortunately, I don't live there, so I avoid all the negative aspects of such an event. Unfortunately, I'm not there, so I can't enjoy this celebration and the unity behind our flag. Probably the only chance to experience this in our country,” he rues.
The opening ceremony has faced brickbats. But Niranjana says, “It was a memorable event, one needs to know French history to understand some of the events.
The ceremony was magnificent, original, unexpected, and spectacular, described Dufossez. “All previous opening ceremonies were held inside a stadium, but Paris chose to celebrate sports along the Seine,” Dufossez said.
He finds this decision very bold, and it is a definite success in his eyes, artistically. “It perfectly represents my country, its culture, and its history. We needed a moment of unity and solidarity in France, especially in the current period of political instability.”
However, he said, it seems that a small minority did not experience the ceremony the same way he did. According to them, the image of France was tarnished, and it was a "slap in the face of sacred religious figures". I see no problem with it and was not shocked at all. However, I think it would have been wiser to avoid certain scenes in the ceremony, such as the beheading of Marie Antoinette, drag queens, and the dance of police officers with Nakamura, to avoid offending this minority of people,” he said.
Meanwhile, along the Seine River, Kallate said there's an 8 km restricted area where only authorised persons are allowed. “We need a QR code to enter this zone. So the restaurants and shops have fewer customers. For Olympics, hotels and Airbnb have tripled their rates. Hence the tourists prefer to stay outside Paris. Most of the Parisians rented their homes and left for summer vacation," she said.
'La Rentree' is how the French describe early September -- the time when schools reopen and people go back to work. Come September 2024, the Games fever would have subsided and the torch passed on to another country.
Whether there would be La Reentree for me to the city? Only time will tell!