Coming to you from Paris

in Four Short Months: The Summer Olympics

If you ask a Parisian, any Parisian, French or exPat, if they are excited about the Olympics coming to Paris in late July, they will probably roll their eyes, get dark around the gills, and tell you they are leaving town—until the end of August. The newspapers say it will be a ghost town. With 10,000 tourists landing like locusts in every part of Paris, willing to pay up to 1000 euros a night for a place to stay, it will hardly be a ghost town. But likely a town of mostly tourists.

The problem for Parisians is that the majority of them cannot afford the prices of the events. We were led to believe that there would be special days where we would be privy to advance sales before they went public. Even then, the most reasonable ticket prices were gone, it was next to impossible to click through to purchasing a ticket, and it became so frustrating we gave up. I wanted the equestrian games which are to take place in Versailles, the tennis which is right around the corner from me at Roland Garros, gymnastics which I knew would be hard to get. Every time I went into the “special” site for residents, every single ticket was gone for all three events. In the end, I recently bought two tickets to a Rugby placement game the night before the Opening Ceremonies. I invited a friend who played Rugby for 20 years to join me. I have been wanting to learn the rules of Rugby so this in many ways would be perfect.

Then there is the roadworks, the renovations, the cleaning up of historic landmarks, putting in elevators and escalators in metro and RER stops. It has been inconvenient to say the least for at least 3 years, now it is getting unbearable. Places like Concorde will close to everything but metro traffic from now until the end of the summer. They are building a stadium at the foot of the Pont d’lena where the Trocadero gardens now are. Cars used to driving along the quai there will be diverted to…..I can’t even imagine where. Anywhere would be a nightmare of snarling traffic. The above map, taken from the French Government site, gives an idea of where construction is happening and who/what is not allowed there.

There is no doubt that these renditions of the stadium with the Tour Eiffel looking over it are beautiful. For people living in other parts of the world, there is undoubtably a sigh of “how beautiful Paris manages to stay beautiful even for the Games.” The Games are for tourists. They will come maybe a couple of days before the Opening Ceremonies to get over jetlag and exclaim at the beauty, the wonder that is Paris with it’s light, it’s sky, and it’s history. They will not know and never know what Parisians had to put up with to get to the Opening Ceremonies. Which about sums up the Olympics for Parisians: all the inconvenience and the events are all unaffordable. ““We’ve been suffering since the Games were declared,” grumbles Nico, a law professor who lives across the street from the Louvre with his wife, Marianne, the owner of a P.R. firm. “Permanent road works, shit everywhere, and obviously the hassle during the Games themselves.”—Alexander Marshall in AirMail

“Today, as the clock ticks down to the opening ceremony on July 26, even as an 82 percent completion rate of building construction has been announced, mostly on schedule, and with a carbon footprint projected to be half that of the previous Games’ average, the city is far from having caught Olympic fever. Instead, it’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown.”—A. M. in AirMail

From the site Paris.fr:

Quel calendrier pour le montage et le démontage des sites ?

Zone Concorde

1^er mars : Début de montage par l’est de la place

Extension progressive du chantier sur l’ensemble de la place de la Concorde du 1er mars au 1er juin

• 1^er avril : quart sud-ouest de la place

• 26 avril : fermeture de la circulation : (piétons/vélos/véhicules) sur le Cours de la Reine entre l'avenue Winston-Churchill et l'avenue Franklin-D-Roosevelt

• 17 mai : fermeture axe nord-sud à la circulation (piétons/vélos/véhicules)

• 1^er juin : fermeture de la circulation véhicule, piétonne et cycliste sur l’ensemble de la place de la Concorde

• 1er juillet : fermeture à la circulation (véhicules) du Pont du Carrousel

• 15 juillet : fermeture à la circulation (véhicules) du Pont Royal

Libération progressive du site à compter du 19 septembre :

• 7 octobre : libération de la majorité du site, sauf autour de la place Jacques-Rueff

• 4 novembre : libération totale du site

Zone Champ-de-Mars

4 mars : Début de montage par la place Jacques-Rueff et avenue Joseph-Boulard (fermeture aux véhicules et piétons)

Extension progressive du chantier sur l’ensemble des jardins du Champ-de-Mars du 4 mars au 1er juillet

• 12 avril : fermeture de la place Gouraud et extension dans le jardin

• 3 juin : fermeture quasi complète des jardins du Champ-de-Mars

• 1er juillet : fermeture à la circulation (véhicules) du Pont d'Iéna

• 24 juillet : fermeture à la circulation (véhicules en surface) du quai Jacques-Chirac

Libération progressive du site à compter du 19 septembre :

• 7 octobre : libération de la majorité du site, sauf autour de la place Jacques-Rueff

• 4 novembre : libération totale du site

And Finally:

Zone Trocadéro

20 mars : début du montage par la place de Varsovie et fermeture à la circulation de la partie nord de la place, mise à sens unique de l’avenue des Nations-Unies et fermeture aux piétons des abords de la fontaine

Fermeture progressive des jardins du Trocadéro du 20 mars au 1er juillet

• 1er mai : Circulation réduite à une file dans chaque sens sur l'avenue du Président-Wilson et fermeture de la chaussée Sud de la place du Trocadéro

• 10 juin : fermeture de l’avenue des Nations-Unies à la circulation (piétons compris)

• 1^er juillet : fermeture des jardins du Trocadéro et fermeture à la circulation (véhicules, piétons et vélos) de l’avenue Albert-de-Mun et du sud de l’avenue Wilson (entre Albert-de-Mun et place d’Iéna)

• 16 juillet : fermeture de la place du Trocadéro et du pont d’Iéna (véhicules motorisés, piétons et vélos)

• 21 juillet : fermeture aux voitures du quai Jacques-Chirac (entre les avenues Suffren et Bourdonnais), le souterrain reste ouvert à la circulation

Du 27 juillet au 8 octobre : libération progressive de l’emprise

• 27 juillet : place du Trocadéro

• 12 août : pont d’Iéna et quai Jacques-Chirac

• 7 septembre : place de Varsovie et avenue des Nations-Unies

• 15 septembre : avenue Wilson

• 19 septembre : majorité des jardins du Trocadéro

• 8 octobre : libération totale du site

Here is the schedule, in French, for the above sites. For a good translation app, use DeepL. It is the best of all available.

Pour voir les cartes en plus grand : Click here to see bigger maps: both of sites and of the different events.

As is quite clear, and even those of you who don’t read French can probably suss out, that from the middle of March until the 4th of November, these sites will be a nightmare for those of us who live in Paris, have to work in Paris, have doctors’ appointmentts and other important appointments. People are being told to work from home. But perhaps their work won’t let them.

There are far too many questions floating around which only adds to the stress. It is impossible to get excited about the Olympics. This is the very first year that I haven’t been excited. I’m going to make an attempt, with friends, to try and see the Opening Ceremonies but I don’t have high hopes.

I plan to write more about the plans, growing furor, and possible excitement about the Parisian Summer Olympics—-which is followed immediately by ParaOlympics.

Hotel de Ville decked out in Olympic flags

A bientôt,

Sara