On the eve of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, the city has become a harrowing obstacle course for Parisians and tourists. Police have locked down the entire centre of the French capital, along the banks of the Seine River.
Where I live outside the Olympic security zone in the eastern 11th arrondissement, the city is unusually quiet, even in late July, a time when residents usually flock to the mountains. big holidays – long summer vacation.
It takes just seven minutes to get on a Vélib, a rental bike that is spread all over Paris, and pedal to the Olympic media center in the central Marais district. After a 15-minute walk, I reach the city hall, walking without any obstacles.
This is where the problem begins for those without security clearance.
A few Ukrainian tourists gaze hopefully at the 44,000 metal barriers across the Seine River, each manned by police, some with machine guns.
“We have a reservation at a restaurant across the river,” says Pavlo Shvts. “Can we go through?” he asks plaintively.
“Do you have a QR code? Access is not possible,” French police officers reply in broken English, shrugging their shoulders apologetically. Many officers have taken a few hours of lessons to learn the basic “anglais”, but in this case, that lesson soon fades.
The officer is not willing or able to tell them where they can cross the Seine River on foot.
In fact, only a few small bridges remain open, connecting the Right to the Left Bank, from the Pont d’Austerlitz near the Bastille to the Pont d’Iéna near the Eiffel Tower. The next bridge is fortunately a few hundred metres to the west.
I manage to get through thanks to my press card, but another British colleague is not allowed in because he failed the test. “But I used it this morning,” he whines. “Sorry, you can’t go,” he is told.
Moving into the security zone, the normally bustling Bistro Marguerite is closed due to lack of customers. Giant, glittering ribbons resembling gold glitter adorn the banks of the Seine, and the seating is ready to accommodate the 100,000 attendees who will attend the opening ceremony on July 26.
At Bistro Les Deux Théâtres on the corner of Avenue Victoria, waiter Edouard Martin, 30, has few complaints. “We are the lucky ones. All our competitors on Place du Châtelêt have been closed since July 18, so customers have been directed to us. The next open bridge is the Eiffel Tower. So we did a very good trade last week.”
However, a few meters away from the river, the situation changes.
“Business has been going very badly for the last two weeks. Normally we serve 3,000 customers during this period but now it’s less than half that,” said Mamadou Gninjue, 32, a waiter at the Compose cafe. “They all get the same salary but the boss is unhappy. We’re not even sure if we’ll open tomorrow.”
Next door to La Grande Colette, manager Vladislav Ciobanu, 37, says: “Parisians have left as usual, but tourists have not been idle. We have a few busy periods, but they are very rare. I hope things will improve after the opening ceremony. But given hotel occupancy rates – down 60% from last year – I am not optimistic.”
Hotels were charging three times the room rates earlier this year, but they were forced to triple their prices to fill the empty rooms.
Frank Delvau, president of the Paris Regional Hotel and Restaurant Owners Association, said that revenues of businesses in the security zone around the Seine River have fallen by up to 80 percent in the last week compared to the same period in 2023.
“We didn’t think it would be this much.” He complained that barriers in central Paris made customers feel “like they were in a zoo”.
Meanwhile, Parisians hoping to make money by renting out homes on Airbnb have flooded the market, causing prices to plummet.
“The restaurants are empty, the terraces are empty,” says 48-year-old web designer Fréd Caplan. “The Airbnbs in my apartment are empty. Three-quarters of my neighbors have left with everyone else. Paris looks deserted. Clearly, this is not the excitement we expected; where are the 15 million tourists?”
Fred is not the only one complaining. In France, ralesWhat can I say, it was already a national sport; the Olympics took this discipline to another dimension.
But there is another group of sports-loving Parisians who see things very differently.
“I can only complain about one thing, and that’s whiners!” said Julien Dubois, a friend of mine who works in the car business. “I can’t stand this criticism of the Paris Olympics: it drives me crazy.”
“The Olympics have transformed Paris for the better, all the piers are gone, there are bike paths, the metro system is excellent. Most of the restrictions will be lifted after the opening ceremony.”
Julien was at the Israel-Mali football match at the Parc des Princes stadium on Wednesday night. “The atmosphere was amazing,” he says. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Long live the Olympic Games!”