How the Olympics accidentally sent Paris back into lockdown
On the eve of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, the city for Parisians and tourists has become an irksome obstacle course. The police have locked down the entire centre of the French capital along the banks of the Seine.
Where I live outside the Olympic security zone in the eastern 11th arrondissement, the city is unusually quiet, even for late July, when droves of residents habitually head for the hills for les grandes vacances – the long summer break.
It takes just seven minutes to board a Vélib, the rental bikes dotted around Paris, and pedal to the Olympic media centre towards the central Marais area. A 15-minute walk later and I reach Paris city hall on foot with no hurdles.
This is where the trouble starts for those without security clearance.
A couple of Ukrainian tourists look hopefully across the Seine at a metal barrier – one of 44,000 along the river banks, each of which is manned by police, some toting machine guns.
“We have a booking in a restaurant over the river,” says Pavlo Shvts. “Can we cross?” he asks plaintively.
“Do you have a QR code? It is not possible accès,” responds the French policemen in broken English, shrugging his shoulders by way of apology. Many officers have received a few hours of lessons to pick up rudimentary “anglais”, but in this case, it soon fizzles out.
The officer isn’t willing or able to tell them where they can cross the Seine by foot.
In fact, only a tiny number of bridges remain open to connect the Right to the Left Bank in a stretch from the Pont d’Austerlitz near Bastille and the Pont d’Iéna near the Eiffel Tower. The next one is thankfully a few hundred yards west.
I manage to get through thanks to my press pass but another British colleague is denied access after his fails to pass muster. “But I used it this morning,” he bleats. “Sorry, you cannot go,” he is told.
Moving inside the security zone, the normally bustling Bistro Marguerite is shut due to the dearth of clients. Giant, shimmering strips of what look like gold tinsel adorn the banks of the Seine, and seats sit ready to accommodate the 100,000 paying participants of July 26’s opening ceremony.
At the Bistro Les Deux Théâtres on the corner of Avenue Victoria, waiter Edouard Martin, 30, has few complaints. “We’re the lucky ones. All our competitors in Place du Châtelêt have been shut since July 18, and so customers have been funnelled our way. The next bridge open is at the Eiffel Tower. So we did a roaring trade last week.”
However, yards further from the river, it’s a different story.
“Business is massively down over the past two weeks. Normally we serve 3,000 customers at this period but right now it’s less than half that,” says Mamadou Gninjue, 32, waiter at the Compose café. “I’m paid all the same but the boss is unhappy. We’re not even sure whether we’ll open tomorrow at all.”
Next door at La Grande Colette, manager Vladislav Ciobanu, 37, says: “The Parisians have left as usual but the tourists haven’t taken up the slack. We get a few busy periods but few and far between. Hopefully, once the opening ceremony is over things will pick up. But given hotel occupancy rates – down 60 per cent compared to last year – I’m frankly not optimistic.”
Hotels were charging three times the going rate for a room earlier this year but have had to cut prices by three in a bid to fill vacancies.
Frank Delvau, chairman of the Union of Hotel and Restaurant Owners in the Paris region, has said establishments in the security zone around the Seine had registered a drop in income of up to 80 per cent over the past week by comparison with the same period in 2023.
“We didn’t think it would be that much.” The barriers in central Paris made customers feel like they were “in a zoo”, he complained.
Meanwhile, Parisians who expected to make a mint by renting their pads on Airbnb have flooded the market, forcing prices down.
Fréd Caplan, 48, a web designer, says: “The restaurants are empty, the terraces are empty. The Airbnbs in my condominium are empty. Three-quarters of my neighbours have left with everyone else. Paris seems deserted. Clearly, this is not the effervescence that was expected; where are the 15 million tourists?”
Fred is not alone in complaining. In France, râler, to moan, was already a national sport; the Olympics have taken the discipline to another level.
But there is another breed of Parisian, the sport lover, who sees things very differently.
“I have only one thing to moan about, and that’s the moaners!” said Julien Dubois, a friend who runs an automobile business. “I can’t take this Paris Olympics bashing: it drives me mad.”
“The Olympics have transformed Paris in a good way, all the scaffolding has gone, the bike lanes are there, the metro system is excellent. Most of the restrictions will go 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. Vive les Jeux Olympiques!”