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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

The Paris Metro and RER stations that will close during the Olympics

If you're in Paris over the summer you may need to adapt your travel plans, as some Metro and RER stations will close during the Games.

Published: 26 April 2024 16:55 CEST
A tram leaves Paris's Porte de Versailles station
A tram leaves Paris's Porte de Versailles station. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP)

Paris Police Prefect Laurent Nuñez on Friday unveiled security measures for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games – including public transport changes.

Opening ceremony

Most of the transport disruption is linked to the ambitious opening ceremony on July 26th – with closures starting in the days leading up to the ceremony and stations re-opening either after the ceremony ends on Friday night or on the following Saturday morning.

These closures affect the ‘protection perimeter’ or the enhanced security zone along the riverbanks that form the route of the opening ceremony.

“All Metro stations leading into the protection perimeter will be closed from July 18th”, Nuñez revealed in a press conference devoted to the police and military arrangements in place for the grand ceremony.

“If you set up a watertight perimeter, but allow people to take the Metro and go back up in the middle of this perimeter, it’s no longer watertight,” he added. 

READ ALSO How to check for Paris Olympics disruption in your area

With the exception of Saint-Michel on the RER C line, all Metro and RER stations within the anti-terrorist protection perimeter will be closed eight days before the event, during which time authorities will be clearing the river, until after the opening ceremony on the Seine.

The various closures will have no impact on the operation of the lines, which will continue to run, as the Paris Police Prefect emphasised, they just won’t stop at those particular stations.

The 15 stations that will be closed are:

  • Alma Marceau (line 9)
  • Champs-Élysées Clémenceau (lines 1 and 13)
  • Cité (4)
  • Concorde (1, 8, 12)
  • Iéna (9)
  • Javel (10)
  • Passy (6)
  • Quai de la Râpée (5)
  • Trocadéro (6, 9)
  • Tuileries (1)
  • Champs-Élysées Clémenceau (RER C)
  • Musée d’Orsay (RER C)
  • Pont de l’Alma (RER C)
  • Trains on Line 7 will pass under the Seine without passengers between Châtelet (including line 11), Pont Marie, Pont Neuf and Sully Morland stations.

Buses are also affected.

“On the day of the ceremony, no buses will be allowed to circulate within the perimeter,” the Préfecture de Police said.

Buses will still run, but vehicles will be rerouted to avoid the area.

Rest of the Games period

Once the ceremony is over, most services will return to normal.

However some stations will remain closed for the duration of the Games – mainly those that are located within or next to competition venues.

Concorde station will be closed to users of line 1 and 8 from June 17th to September 21st and line 12 from May 17th to September 21st, due to its proximity to the site dedicated to urban sports. 

READ ALSO Factcheck: Which areas will be closed in Paris during the Olympics?

Tuileries, served by line 1, will be closed from June 17th to September 21st.

Finally, on lines 1 and 13, Champs-Élysées-Clémenceau will be closed from July 1st to September 21st.

Tramway stations will also be affected by the closures.

Starting with Porte d’Issy (T2) and Porte de Versailles (T2, T3a) tram stations will be closed from July 25th to August 11th and from August 29th to September 7th.

The Colette Besson station on the T3b line will also be closed from July 27th to August 10th, and again from August 29th to September 8th.

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CULTURE

Taylor Swift fever grips Paris at start of Europe tour

Taylor Swift-fever struck Paris on Thursday as the highest-grossing tour in history finally arrived in Europe, with fans treated to the first-ever performance of songs from her latest album.

Published: 10 May 2024 14:29 CEST
Taylor Swift fever grips Paris at start of Europe tour

The Eras Tour began its European leg with four dates at the La Defense Arena in Paris and attendance on the first night alone was 45,387, according to her press team.

“I wish I could have toured Europe more. This is a dream crowd,” the 34-year-old megastar told the ecstatic audience.

There were deafening shrieks as images of typewriter sheets indicated that songs off the new album, “The Tortured Poets Department”, were starting late in the show.

Emerging in a lyrics-covered dress, she ran through several of the darker new tracks starting with “But Daddy I Love Him” and including “Fortnight”, a particularly furious rendition of “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” and an elaborate “I Can Do it with a Broken Heart” with a golden-era Hollywood dance routine.

“You were the first crowd to see songs from ‘The Tortured Poets Department’,” she said, before adding: “Or, as I like to call it, ‘Female Rage: the Musical'”.

That was a dream come true for many in the audience.

“I’ve been so excited for so long, I can’t believe it’s actually happening,” said 11-year-old Emma, who had flown in with her mother from New York.

The venue said a fifth of the crowd were from the United States — many attracted by Europe’s rules against charging huge mark-ups on resale tickets that can save Americans thousands of dollars compared with shows at home.

Georg’Ann Daly decided to celebrate her 23rd birthday with the Paris show. It meant flying from Nashville to Chicago to London and catching the Eurostar to Paris.

“I’ve always been obsessed with Taylor Swift,” she told AFP.

A handful of superfans camped out from Tuesday in Paris to ensure they got a prime spot.

“I didn’t plan to, but I came to check it out and I saw the first tents and I panicked a little,” said Chris, 30.

Noah, 20, is seeing all four Paris concerts — he used 22 email addresses to get through the lottery system and secure the tickets

Record-breaker

After France, Swift heads on for dates in Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland and Austria.

The Eras Tour has already worked its way across North and South America and Asia since starting in March 2023.

By the end of the year, it had already become the first to sell more than $1 billion in tickets and is on track to more than double that by the time it concludes in Vancouver this December.

Swift’s popularity shows no sign of dimming — the new album shifted 1.4 million copies on its first day and broke every streaming record going, reaching a billion streams on Spotify within five days.

Her tell-all dissections of her love stories have been the fuel powering her global domination, and fans have been poring over “The Tortured Poets Department” for cryptic clues about ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, her short-but-dramatic fling with Matty Healy (lead singer of The 1975), and her current partner, American football star Travis Kelce.

“Taylor talks about toxic relationships, impossible love, politics, mental health, and so much more,” said Chris as she waited by her tent for the big moment. “I think we can all find a song that resonates with our experiences.”

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