Paris 2024 Olympic Games: heart of city without cars, deserted banks of the Seine… the capital holds its breath before the opening

Etonnant spectacle que celui de la rue de Rivoli désertée par les voitures et investies par cyclistes et piétons.. Midi Libre – Richard Gougis

the essential The heart of the city and the banks of the Seine, sealed off before the opening, offer the vision of a city emptied of its inhabitants, as if struck by a new pandemic. But the Olympic virus is well at work…

"Paris loves you". As soon as they exit the plane, this proclamation is displayed in the form of a challenge. Seduce the French and the rest of the world. Blind them with the light attached to his legend. Paris, as always, leaves no one indifferent, torn between the discontent of its inhabitants with restricted freedom, that of certain tourists deprived of access to monuments and the surprise of other visitors to (re) discover a city center open to tranquility. Like in this rue de Rivoli abandoned to pedestrians and cyclists.

Five days before the opening ceremony of the Games, nothing is all black and white. Rather gray, like these backward areas which cut off the Seine and its surroundings from the rest of the world and require the famous QR code to enter a prohibited zone. Enough to turn and roar like lions in a cage. From the deserted quays of the Seine, where the second-hand booksellers' boxes remain desperately closed, emerges the shadow of Notre Dame like a protective dungeon.

As if the Île de la Cité had become an impregnable fortress, surrounded by emptiness and silence, prisoner of a new pandemic. Except that this time it is the virus of Olympicism that is incubating the entire city, making the masks fall on smiles or grimaces.

Nails thrown on the Olympic tracks

"These Games are driving everyone crazy, squeaks Kader at the wheel of his taxi. It’s a godsend for us to be able to drive in the lanes reserved for Olympic vehicles but it attracts hatred from others. Yesterday a woman gave me the finger and nails were placed on our voices. Something crazy!"

Many have made arrangements, like Florence, an IT employee who is “authorized to work from home for the entire duration of the Games.”

The kids are playing the game in front of the City Hall

“Frankly, for the moment there aren't many people, assures Kader. Most hotels aren't full, I don't know if these Olympics will be a hit.”However, there are only that many strangers in the streets on this Sunday which seems to stretch on forever. Even on the square in front of the town hall where a village of activities delights families and kids, invited to immerse themselves, for a moment, in the skin of ;rsquo;Paralympic athletes for a session of wheelchair tennis, blind football, or an introduction to climbing.

Blind football initiation session in front of the town hall square, transformed into a large sports field. Midi Libre – Richard Gougis

"I find all this very exciting", confided Sarah, an English mother who came to spend a few days with her eight-year-old daughter years. "I’had already been here a few years ago and what I discovered was very different. The entertainment for children is Top."

"It perhaps foreshadows what Paris will become"

Same light in the eyes of Lucas, a young father happy to "discover the city in a new light which perhaps foreshadows what Paris will one day become or ;rsquo;other, a more peaceful city, without noise and without cars."

While a man loses his temper, at the end of the bridge that the police prohibit him from taking, Paris offers the surprising image of a city holding back its breath, of an empty Seine waiting for its artists. But from the signs to the outfits of the volunteers who invade the capital like a silent army, the rainbow of Olympicism seems to build a bridge between two worlds. And implacably impose the force of its rays, between showers and clearings.

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