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