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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

‘No plan B’: Is Paris’ plan for River Seine Olympics opening ceremony on course?

The chief organiser of the 2024 Paris Olympics insisted on Wednesday there were no plans to move the opening ceremony of the Games from the river Seine amid ongoing speculation about the hugely ambitious water-based show.

Published: 10 January 2024 17:28 CET
'No plan B': Is Paris' plan for River Seine Olympics opening ceremony on course?
A peniche boat sails past the Eiffel Tower toward the Alexander III bridge on the River Seine on July 17, 2023, during a parade to test "maneuvers", "distances", "duration" and "video capture" of the future opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in 2024. (Photo by Bertrand GUAY / AFP)

After months of denials that contingency plans were being put in place, French President Emmanuel Macron sparked new doubts last month when he said that there was “obviously a plan B, a plan C” for the opening ceremony on July 26.

But Tony Estanguet, who heads the Paris Olympics organising committee, stressed on Wednesday that the locaton for the ceremony would not be moved.

“Today, with the artistic director for the ceremony, Thomas Jolly, we are working on an opening ceremony on the Seine. Our teams are not working on any other location,” he told France Inter radio.

French security services have consistently raised doubts about having the opening team parade on the river in the heart of the City of Light, citing the difficulty of securing such a large area and the risk of a terror attack or stampede.

With sporting delegations set to sail along the river in a flotilla of around 100 boats, it will be the first time the opening ceremony has taken place outside the athletics stadium in Olympic history.

French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera called the plans “a key symbol of our ambitions for iconic Games” in an interview earlier this month.

READ MORE: Hotels, tickets and scams: What to know about visiting Paris for the 2024 Olympics

The Seine is also set to be at the heart of the sporting action during the July 26-August 11 event, with authorities rushing to clean up the waterway so it can host the open-water swimming competition as well as the swimming leg of the triathlon.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo promised Wednesday that she would take a “historic dip” in the Seine before the start of the Games to draw attention to what she sees as a key part of the city’s Olympics legacy: the creation of three open-air bathing spots for the public.

“Everyone said it was impossible and we’ve done it,” she told reporters at city hall.

Poor water quality forced the cancellation of three swimming test events last July and August, however, and local authorities still have thousands of new sewer connections and key storm-water infrastructure to finish in the next few months.

Estanguet said in December that 84 percent of the sporting infrastructure for the games had been finished and that organisers were on track to deliver “spectacular games” for the expected 10,000 athletes and millions of spectators.

The Paralympic Games are set to take place in Paris afterwards from August 28-September 8.

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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

France racing to build giant army camp for Paris Olympics security

To house the thousands of soldiers tasked with keeping the Paris Olympics safe, France is building the largest army camp its mainland has seen since World War II, at breakneck pace.

Published: 13 June 2024 17:18 CEST
France racing to build giant army camp for Paris Olympics security

Row upon row of temporary barracks have risen up in the Bois de Vincennes in eastern Paris where the Foire du Trône fairground once stood, green army bunk beds and massive mess halls for 4,500 troops replacing merry-go-rounds and candyfloss.

Construction of the camp is being held to a record deadline of 65 days, with the first soldiers due to arrive on July 3rd.

Thirteen days later, they will be guarding the showpiece opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics along a six-kilometre stretch of the River Seine – the focus of persistent security worries.

“We’re on schedule,” insisted Denis Lesaffre from the Economat des Armees, a logistics partner of the armed forces which is managing the work.

In all, 18,000 military personnel will be on hand to provide security for the Games, which will last from July 26th to August 11th.

They will provide support for 45,000 members of the internal security forces, police and gendarmerie, along with a number of private security guards ranging between 18,000 and 22,000 a day.

Though it may compare in scale to the camps that were built when Nazi boots still stood on French soil, its amenities would be rather alien to the soldiers of the time.

“In 1945, we were building camps of tents,” Commissar General Philippe Pourque told AFP.

“In 2024, it’s a permanent structure with facilities that were unimaginable 50 years ago: WiFi, air conditioning,” Pourque said.

Such amenities were “essential to ensure that our soldiers are able to cope” during the Olympics, he added, calling the standard “almost superior to those of our deployments in our theatres of operation abroad.”

The last major camp set up by the French armed forces in recent years was in Gao, Mali.

Up to 2,000 men were deployed there in the middle of the desert as part of the anti-jihadist Operation Barkhane, before their departure in 2022.

A city within a city, the camp boasts rooms with space for up to 18 soldiers, plumbing connected to the Paris network and a weightlifting gym, as well as three bars with beer on tap – but no hard liquor or wine.

The soldiers’ main mission will be to carry out patrols, covering around 20 kilometres on each outing while carrying around 20 kilos of equipment on their backs.

In the event of a crisis, they must be ready to deploy within 30 minutes.

The biggest worries are “the terrorist threat, drones, and the protest threat, cyber attacks”, according Christophe Abad, the military commander for the Paris region.

The camp is named after Corporal Alain Mimoun, who joined the army aged 18 and went on to become one of France’s greatest athletes, winning Olympic medals in 1948, 1952 and 1956 on the track and in the marathon.

At the request of the heritage and environment departments, the 10-hectare site is fenced off and is designed to blend in to the landscape.

No building exceeds one storey in height, and each one is set back at least two metres away from protected trees.

Even the design of the canteen reflects the surrounding pines, beeches and chestnuts.

Spread over 5,000 square metres, the canteen has seats for 2,100 hungry soldiers who will consume tonnes of food over the course of the Olympics.

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