The Paris Olympics: rats, bedbugs, rubbish and strikes, a headache for the mayor Anne Hidalgo

More than a joy, The Olympic Games are turning into a nightmare for the Parisians and their organizers. They will be joined by 15 million tourists, who will participate and suffer transport problems, very expensive accommodation and the likelihood of restaurants being closed because they have gone on holiday. Between 26 July and 11 August, the international competition will change its face in Paris.

Today the French woke up to the official posters of the Olympic Games. The cross of the Invalides has disappeared from the image. It is replaced by an arrow, an artistic license from its creator.

“A deformation to contemplate the extreme secularism” of mayor Anne Hidalgo, who becomes a caricature, according to her critics.

“It is their desire to make every trace of Christianity disappear from the historical monument,” insist the devout Christians.

The French flag and the Invalides cross are missing.. As soon as it was revealed to the public, the Games poster sparked controversy. On social networks, Internet users denounce an “invisibility” of the French identity.

“We will notice their desire to erase every sign of Christianity”, “They dared”, “A shame for our country”, we read online.

“No French flag appears. The invisibility of our identity is an unacceptable flaw. We must fight relentlessly against Wokism everywhere,” said RN MP Nicolas Meironnet. Gilbert Collard MEP highlights “the actions of guilty traitors the fundamental denial of France”.

The work, created by designer Ugo Gattoni, is rich in details. “You have to find the pets, find the flame bearer, find the disciplines. There are many things to look for. “It is an extremely symbolic poster, which tells many things about the Paris 2024 project, starting with Bélem, who will carry the Olympic torch to Marseille,” explained the artist during the presentation of his posters. Also with the tourist port of Marseille, home to sailing competitions.”

Numerous monuments are represented there: “La Banque Populaire de Le Cléac’h, the Eiffel Tower, the Stade de France, all the new sports: break dancing on the roof of the Stade de France, skateboarding, BMX, climbing. It’s the Teahupo’o wave in Tahiti with surfers. But there is also Stoke Mandeville, the origin of Paralympicism, which is on an island because it is in England. There are also many monuments, whether it is the Arc de Triomphe, the Grand Palace, the Concorde, the Trocadéro, the Invalides… It is a pharaonic project,” he continued.

The Paris 2024 Organizing Committee has clarified that this absence of a cross It’s a simple “artist’s bias”. In an official statement, he adds that the posters “are a cheerful and light-hearted artistic interpretation of a reinvented stadium city. Many elements could be reinterpreted by the artist. It is a representation that is neither exhaustive nor faithful to reality – the Tahitian wave is in front of the tourist port of Marseille, the Eiffel Tower is pink, the metro passes under the Arc de Triomphe – without being the subject of politically motivated interpretations.

The designer Ugo Gattoni himself wanted to react to defend his work: “Through my designs of official posters I do not try to represent objects or buildings in a conformist way. I evoke them as they appear to me and without ulterior motives. I don’t want them to be faithful to the original, but rather that we can imagine at a glance what it is, and at the same time project it into a surreal universe,” he said.

Room without air conditioning

Then there are the Olympic halls of St Denis, one of the most socially tense places in France. There is no air conditioning in the buildings because the mayor is against it due to environmentalism. They have to sleep two, four or six and have bathrooms for 4. Many participants say they don’t sleep there.

Paris has increasingly hotter summersalthough most buildings are not allowed to install air conditioning.

Saudi Arabia requested that a huge tent be built in Les Invalides for them and their team. President Emmanuel Macron said yes. The mayor denied it, every day there is a new controversy.

Paris may be headed for an Olympic-sized disaster: rtraffic jams, bugs, blocked roads and a transport system on the brink. The French capital could ruin its matches with many problems.

Paris offers an unbeatable setting for an event of the magnitude of the Olympic Games. The perfect backdrop is already there. Promotional videos for Paris 2024 include horses galloping past the fountains of an empty Versailles, breakdancing in the trash-free Place de la Concorde, and cyclists pedaling along the Arc de Triomphe. However, the real pictures are different.

The first problem is bed bugs, which France accuses Vladimir Putin of publicizing. In the autumn of 2023, it seemed that Paris, and France in general, had been inundated with a veritable plague of mites. Travelers began wrapping train seats in garbage bags to avoid becoming hosts to these tiny blood-sucking insects. People were afraid to go to the cinema because they had been invaded. Decontaminators are not enough.

The waste strike produced unhealthiness. The rat problem is serious in Paris and has gone viral on TikTok. The city’s rat population was estimated at four million in 2020.

Added to the train strikes are farmers’ movements, blocking the streets and the Champs Elysées with tractorsprotest regulations, paltry profits and endless bureaucracy.

A group called Riposte Alimentaire (Food Response) dumped soup on the Mona Lisa in January. The Louvre, where the painting is displayed, increased the ticket price by 5 euros this year: the first increase in seven years, no doubt strategically planned to take advantage of the influx of tourists.

Earlier this month, France’s most famous monument was also on strike. Workers at the Eiffel Tower, dissatisfied with the way the building is being run, have walked out and left it closed for six days in the middle of the school holidays, believing it to be poorly maintained and corroded. They accuse the mayor of Paris.

For many residents, a big topic of discussion is how the Olympics are making the current housing crisis even worse. They evict students to rent it to tourists.

Twelve thousand euros per week

Paris already has one of the highest costs of living in the country: renting a room costs on average 1,362 euros per month. During the Games, evacuees may find themselves unable to find accommodation within their budget, as an increasing number of homeowners list their properties on platforms such as Airbnb. Apartments to rent during the Olympics cost 12,000 euros per week.

The Parisians intend to leave during the holidays of the Games. Some will rent their homes but many others They will want to be away from that flow of tourists which will transform the city.

Restaurateurs believe that those arriving will use “low cost” food and also plan to take holidays. They are not even enthusiastic about President Emmanuel Macron’s promise to swim in the Seine before the opening ceremony.

PB