Paris to inaugurate Paralympic Games with 'never seen before' opening ceremony in city's heart
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00:00France 24's Emerald Maxwell is on Paris' iconic Champs-Elysees Avenue as organizers put the finishing touches on
00:07preparations for the opening ceremony. Emerald, first of all, how has the ambiance been here in Paris in the aftermath of those Olympic Games?
00:17Well, Paris has really been buzzing in the afterglow of what was widely seen as a
00:22successful Olympic Games, and we have the opening ceremony for the Paralympics here tonight.
00:28So there are high hopes for that, that that success will continue through these Paralympic Games.
00:33The opening ceremony, as I said, is along here, along the Champs-Elysees, where
00:3915,000 free tickets have been handed out to spectators. It will end,
00:43athletes will parade along here, and it will end in Concorde Square where there will be the actual ceremony.
00:49So also outdoors, just like in that Olympic opening ceremony.
00:52But the atmosphere is a bit different this time because we're gearing up for la rentrée, the back-to-school, back-to-work,
00:58for a lot of Parisians after their long summer break, which is a bit different from the Olympics,
01:03which happened in the middle of summer when a lot of Parisians had gone away.
01:07So it will be perhaps a more of a test for the city and its infrastructure.
01:12Infrastructure, there are less spectators, but more Parisians here. Indeed, in speaking of infrastructure, Paris can be a notoriously
01:20challenging city for people with mobility issues. There has been a lot of effort to make it more accessible,
01:25but do you think the city is ready for these Paralympics?
01:30Yes, it is famously inaccessible. Anyone with any kind of mobility issue visiting Paris will know that
01:37it's got very narrow pavements, a lot of stairs and steps, cobblestones everywhere.
01:42It's really a difficult city to get around if you've got mobility, any kind of accessibility issue.
01:47Famously, the Metro is
01:50very inaccessible, and that is really still the weak point. There has been a lot of investment in the years since
01:57Paris won the Olympic and Paralympic Games. They said they would make it fully accessible.
02:01Yes, buses and trams are a lot better than they used to be. They are now apparently fully accessible in the centre.
02:08They've been installed with ramps. There's more Braille. There's more station announcements.
02:12But yes, that weak spot is still regional trains and the 100-year-old, well, over 100-year-old
02:19Metro system, which only has one line that's fully accessible and is largely very inaccessible for people.
02:25So, yes, the President of the Paris region said that there was a lot of room for improvement
02:31and that could be one of the next projects for Paris and hopefully a lasting legacy of these Paralympic Games.
02:38In the meantime, though, there are more volunteers on hand to help people get around and also an app has been made available
02:46to people to help them get around the city.
02:49Indeed, many are hoping that these Paralympic Games will be the impetus for Paris to improve its accessibility for people with limited mobility going forward.
02:58France24's Emerald Maxwell from the Champs-Élysées for us there. We will be following all of that.
03:03And indeed here on France24, we will be bringing you the latest from the Paralympics opening ceremony with a special show.