Paris — The torch relay ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics reached the French capital for the primary time on Sunday, with organizers hoping to construct enthusiasm for the Games among the many metropolis’s skeptical residents. The flame was first glimpsed throughout the conventional army parade held yearly on the July 14 nationwide vacation, largely identified outdoors the nation as Bastille Day, after which started its tour across the metropolis from the Champs-Elysees.
World Cup-winning soccer nice Thierry Henry was given the respect of the primary leg on the capital’s most well-known avenue, with the torch then heading for landmarks together with the parliament and Notre-Dame cathedral
“It’s not something you turn down, on our national day, on the Champs-Elysees, the Olympics in Paris,” Henry advised reporters of his star flip. “Just extraordinary.”
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The flame remained in the capital Monday for a second day, making a cease with some can-can dancers outdoors the famed Moulin Rouge cabaret present earlier than touring as much as the hill-top Montmartre cathedral.
The construct as much as the Paris Games has been marked by what chief organiser Tony Estanguet has known as “Olympics-bashing,” with many Parisians the sternest critics of the occasion and the disruption in town.
Many Parisians and guests annoyed by Olympic disruption
In the rich districts, many households have already left for prolonged summer time holidays, intentionally lacking the July 26-August 11 extravaganza.
“I’m following them putting up the equipment, the stadiums, the impact that it will have on us, not really the torch,” 22-year-old pupil Manon Skura advised AFP on the Champs-Elysees.
The Games have been designed to happen at areas in the guts of the City of Light, with momentary stadiums constructed at vacationer hotspots such because the Eiffel Tower, Invalides and Place de la Concorde.
Using the capital’s fabled streets and the river Seine as a backdrop will guarantee “iconic” Olympics, organizers say, nevertheless it has additionally led to massive elements of central Paris being closed off and left visitors in gridlock.
First-time guests to Paris Ian and Belinda Caulfield, from Wales, advised CBS News correspondent Elaine Cobbe they have been shocked at how a lot building there was and the way troublesome it was to get round.
“I know it’s within a certain amount of the city, but if you just want to walk down the Seine, there’s a lot of obstructions,” mentioned Ian.
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The newest change to the capital’s streets has been the looks of round 44,000 metallic boundaries across the Seine river, the place a spectacular opening ceremony is being deliberate on July 26.
“Some residents have shared with us their amazement, as well the physical impossibility of leaving their homes,” the mayor of the upmarket river-side seventh district of Paris, Jean-Pierre Lecoq, mentioned final week.
Chief organizer Tony Estanguet advised AFP that pushing again the pessimists had been one of his most troublesome duties.
“My role has been to protect our vision against everyone who criticizes, those who don’t believe in it, those who would take pleasure in seeing it not go well,” he mentioned throughout an interview on Thursday.
The torch relay had been an enormous success nationally, he mentioned, with round 5 million individuals turning out to see it since May 8.
“We’re delighted with how it has gone so far,” he defined. “It has completely met the targets we gave ourselves.”
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Most importantly, the relay via 450 French cities and cities has taken place with none main safety issues — testimony to the massive numbers of law enforcement officials deployed and cautious planning.
Around 200 members of the safety forces are positioned completely across the torch, together with an anti-terror SWAT workforce and anti-drone operatives.
A 26-year-old man was arrested and charged in Bordeaux in May over suspected threats to the procession because it travelled via the southwestern metropolis.
Although polls typically discover a slim majority of French individuals help the Olympics, a survey on March 25 by the Viavoice group discovered that 57% of respondents felt “little” or “no” enthusiasm about them in Paris.
