Paris 2024: How the French capital is preparing for the Olympics Games

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon from Paris. I'm here on the banks of the River Seine. You can see the Eiffel Tower behind me there.

00:07The Olympic ring's just about poking through the leaves on the trees.

00:10And Paris is now gearing up for what promises to be an amazing opening ceremony here on Friday night,

00:16when more than 10,000 athletes will parade, not as they normally do, out onto the athletics track at the main Olympic Stadium,

00:22but instead by flotilla up the Seine. There'll be more than 300,000 people lining the banks of the river to see it.

00:29And while that promises to be an amazing spectacle, the kind we've never before seen in Olympic history,

00:34it has also necessitated a huge security operation.

00:38The roads and the streets where I'm standing at the moment would normally be packed with cars and people,

00:43but instead they're very nearly deserted.

00:45Only kind of accredited media and various other organisers are allowed beyond the security perimeter that's been set up.

00:52The only boats that have gone past on the river have been police boats,

00:55checking the final security preparations for that ceremony on Friday night.

01:00It's not been hugely popular with all the locals.

01:03There've been plenty of complaints about infringement on freedoms,

01:07and actually people have compared it to the COVID lockdown.

01:09And it does feel like that being down here around the Eiffel Tower,

01:13those kind of sites that normally would be absolutely mobbed with tourists, pretty much deserted.

01:18It does remind me of being in London during those lockdowns.

01:21But the hope is that it'll all be worth it, that everything will go smoothly on Friday night,

01:25and this Games will kick off in fantastic style.