Remember the expensive tickets? Finally, some promised cheap tickets showed up. And there was an official ticket exchange where you could resell your strictly personal ticket. With the Games already in full swing, I scored a 24 € ticket for a volleyball match on Friday morning. (I wanted a sport I know at least the basic rules off, and swimming was still very much out of reach.)
And there were also the street events. That’s what they called everything happening out in the open: road cycling, marathon, triathlon. Given the high security zones mentioned earlier, you’d think watching something for free would be impossible. Well, it wasn’t.
Alexandre II Bridge where the triathlon will start (Grand Palais in the background)
When I went to see the triathlon, the only problem was the (much maligned) water safety. The first day’s races had to be postponed, and even on the second day, it was still raining in the morning. The Pont Alexandre III had stands for paying spectators and also the finishing line, while we onlookers crowded every available spot along the riverbanks.
You can see the paying spectators in the stands and the camera drone hovering in the air
I literally went to see the triathlon on my way to work. Where I stood, we heard the starting signal, then saw the swimmers arrive and round the buoy, repeat this feat and then vanish from sight.
The triathletes have to swim around the yellow buoy
While I made my way through the crowd back onto the street and toward the métro station, the athletes had already finished their first cycling lap and were racing past faster than I could point my camera.
Here they are in the foreground between the barrier and the first buoy.
I checked out the running part later on the replay, wondering which of the many colorful swim caps I had seen in the river had been the French triathlete Cassandre Beaugrand who’d gone on to win gold.
Finally, the moment has come. The day is here. It is Friday, July 26, 2024, and tonight’s the night of the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
No, wait. We’re not there yet. In the morning, France wakes up to reports of arson attacks on the French high-speed railway during the night. Chaos ensues, and reportedly, some spectators who paid a fortune for their Opening Ceremony seats (tickets cost over 1,000 euros) didn’t make it in time.
But now for real! We’re on the Seine river, it is Friday evening, and I give you—
RAIN!
Yes, thousands and thousands of spectators sit in temporary stands along the river between Austerlitz and Iéna bridges, and it’s pouring down on them. Also on the artists, the VIPS, the security people, and most importantly, on the Olympic athletes in their boats!
I watched a documentary later, and Tony Estanguet, head of the organizing committee and three-times Olympic champion, had tears in his eyes. He’d weathered everything, the arguments, the delays, the politics, and now just as his dream was coming true, the weather gods punished him.
Meanwhile, my family had the very best seats in the house: in front of the TV!
Best view in the house!
You see, the idea of holding the Opening Ceremony on the Seine meant that each spectator only saw a small part “live” and had to follow the rest on one of the big screens. Also, they were being rained down upon. Whereas we were sitting in our warm and dry living room, hadn’t spent a cent on tickets for the night, yet got the very best view.
Many Parisians had applied for free tickets, but those were obviously behind the 1,000-euro-seats and, just as obviously, in the rain.
I don’t regret anything about that night.
The Opening Ceremony changed everything. From the moment the French national colors blue-white-red exploded on Austerlitz Bridge, still hours before the Games were declared open, the mood changed.
Parade, the Paris 2024 hymn by Victor Le Masne
The ceremony was amazing. It started on a fun note, with comedian Jamel Debbouze (you might know him as architect Numerobis in “Asterix: Mission Cleopatra”) taking the Olympic torch to the Stade de France and finding it empty, only to have French football star Zinedine Zidane show up to save the day, racing with the torch into the métro. The métro (predictably) gets stuck, and Zizou tasks three kids with carrying the torch. They meet the Phantom of the Opera who rows them along an underground canal and onto the Seine. Later, a masked Assassin (from Assassin’s Creed, created in France) takes over and carries the torch over rooftops, checking in on rebuilt Notre Dame cathedral and rehearsals for Les Misérables musical. At one point, the torch is handed over to a cavalière on a silver horse named Zeus riding on the river to the Trocadéro. Only for more torchbearers to get in a speedboat and take the torch back to the Tuileries where the cauldron, a golden Montgolfière—a nod to History—is lit by an Olympian and a Paralympian.
Céline Dion rallies her voice to sing live from the Eiffel Tower, and a volunteer gets her fifteen minutes of fame holding the umbrella for organizing committee boss Tony Estanguet during his Opening Ceremony speech.
I was in tears in front of our TV screen. Skepticism? Forgotten. Let the Games begin!
Paris-plages (Paris Beach, or more accurately, Paris Beaches) operates every summer within the period of mid-July to the end of August. Its exact duration has evolved since its inception in 2002. A 3.5km-long stretch of the expressway (now pedestrianized year round) along the river on the right bank accommodates the sorts of installations and activities you would find by the sea – palm trees, deckchairs, hammocks, strand bars, sports activities etc.
From 2002 to 2016, actual sand was provided, allowing kids to build sandcastles (the “building tools” were also provided) and city-dwellers to feel the sand under their feet. The sand delivery partnership was cancelled by the City of Paris after 2016, citing political reasons.
Paris-plage with and without sand (2016 vs. 2018)
The very first edition of Paris-plage in 2002, seen by night
The origins of the beach operation go back to 1996, when the town of Saint Quentin in the north of France, opened a beach in front of city hall. But it was only when Paris picked up the idea in 2002 that cities and towns big and small all over France and across the world copied it. Even my small town in the suburbs has its beach, including hammocks, swimming pool, and a giant water slide.
Paris added additional sites, such as the beach volleyball fields outside city hall, and the Bassin de la Villette in the 19tharrondissement, hence the change from Paris-plage to Paris-plages (plural).
Some years, the Louvre museum offers activities, a small library is set up along with a board games library, pools (since swimming in the Seine is scheduled only for the Paris Olympics in 2024), sports activities such as Tai Chi, yoga, boxing, beach volleyball, dancing and much more. There are water misters installed to help people stay cool, and of course the essential deck chairs and sunshades!
Did you know there is a logic to the street numbers in Paris? There is, and it’s really quite simple and has helped me many times in pre-cell phone days or when I am on a bike and my phone is in my pocket.
The rule is very simple and distinguishes streets running (roughly) perpendicular to the river and streets running (again, roughly) parallel to the river.
For the perpendicular streets, numbering starts on the end closest to the river. Uneven numbers are on the left, even numbers on the right. So if you’re looking for a number higher than the one in front of you, go away from the river.
For the parallel streets, numbering starts upriver. The south side of the street will have the uneven numbers, the north side the even numbers. So if you’re looking for a number higher than the one in front of you, go downriver.
Easy-peasy, right?
A street running parallel to the river – numbering starts upriverA street running perpendicular to the river – numbering starts near the river
Every once in a while, and mostly in the winter months, Paris will get its feet wet. The city is cut into Left Bank and Right Bank (as I explain here) by the river Seine which has its source near Dijon and flows from there roughly northwest to reach the English Channel at Le Havre. Its drainage basin covers most of the north of France.
Despite the existence of several large storage reservoirs upriver of Paris built since 1950, the river has repeatedly risen to high levels in the city, especially in 1924, 1955, 1982, 1999-2000, June 2016 and January 2018.
flood markers at the river fighter-fighters – see 1910 at the very top?
The worst flood, however, dates back to 1910 and is often qualified as a 100-year flood. Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t mean it occurs once in a hundred years, but has a one-in-a-hundred chance of occurring in any given year.
The 1910 flood resulted from a combination of high rainfall, snow and frozen ground, flooding of several tributaries of the Seine and the already saturated underground of the Paris Basin.
Over only ten days, the Seine rose to the 8,62m level (at Pont d’Austerlitz, the official point of reference) and took 35 days to go back down, peaking on January 28. All the neighborhoods along the river were under water, and people had to use boats and wooden walkways (like you see in Venice during Aqua Alta).
On January 20, ships could no longer navigate the river in Paris because they couldn’t pass under the bridges any longer.
photos from the 2016 and 2018 floods
On January 23, the Seine reached the quay walls which had been built to the height of the 1876 flood, and parts of the city were flooded. On January 28, peak day of the flood, some 22,000 basements and hundreds of streets were flooded with water and ice. The problem worsened as underground sewage pits that were not connected to the sewage network, polluted the water. The tankers that normally evacuate the sewage could no longer pass under the bridges, and the sanitary situation became worrying, with typhoid and scarlet fever cases.
The economy was hard hit, in particular bookstores and publishers whose entire stocks were destroyed. Some 20,000 buildings were flooded in Paris, as well as half of the existing métro network. The brand-new line 4, inaugurated only weeks earlier, is closed.
Flood marker in the Conciergerie on Cité Island
Today, the 1910 flood is the reference used for any rise of the river level. Throughout the city, you can find markers indicating the height of the 1910 flood.
The 2018 flood makes news headlines but remains well below the 1910 marker.
The latest two floods, in June 2016 and January 2018, made headlines around the world, and spectacular photos were posted on social networks, including by me.
riverbank in the 4th arrondissement during and after 2016 flood
The Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, both located on the riverbanks, closed down and transferred their underground storage items to street level for safekeeping. Still, these floods remained well below that of 1910.
2018 flood at Pont de Rouelle – see the 1910 flood marker?
One important if unofficial reference for the level of the river is the stone statue of the Zouave on the Pont de l’Alma. It is the stone statue of a French soldier from the Zouaves, a former light infantry regiment of the French army which took their name from a North African tribe well-known for their bravery.
When the Seine is at its normal level, the Zouave remains completely dry. During the 1910 flood, the water reached its shoulders. When the bridge was rebuilt in the 1970s, the Zouave was moved to a lower position, making any direct comparisons impossible. However, it still remains a reference for Parisians, and it had crowds of visitors during the 2016 and 2018 floods, when the water reached up to its waist.
Zouave during the height of the 2018 flood
Paris flood 1910: flooded areas of the city in grey
