The Games seen from La Courneuve
The world Since January, the Olympic and Paralympic Games have been reported from the town located in Seine-Saint-Denis, a department supposed to benefit fully from the Games. La Courneuve is located in the middle, rife with tensions linked to major urban transformations, exacerbated by the Games, and a very degraded social situation. How will they take place there, with what effects? Municipality, associative fabric, sports clubs, workers, high-level athletes testify.
- First episode: In La Courneuve, we “would like to see the Games arrive with the eyes of a child”
- Second episode: Rafik Arabat and Gwladys Epangue, two high-level athletes living in La Courneuve, want to believe in the positive effects of the Olympics
A temporary poster appeared in the corridors of the Paris metro during the month of February. We see a large park and urban density on the horizon, lawns decorated with drawings that look like science fiction: here an athletics track, there an immense tower, giant screens, canoes floating next to Olympic rings with pink highlights.
A slogan sets the scene: “ [En] 2024, Seine-Saint-Denis is proud to welcome the world! » We are at the Georges-Valbon departmental park, formerly La Courneuve park, because it is located mainly within the territory of the city, but which also extends over the territory of the municipalities of Stains, Dugny, and Bourget (Seine- Saint-Denis) and Garges-lès-Gonesse (Val-d’Oise).
In these approximately 410 hectares of greenery, located in one of the most urbanized departments, the cackle of wild geese mixes with the noise of planes and the surrounding highways. There we come across cyclists and wild rabbits, sheep, a few waders, seventeen mounted eco-guards and an equestrian brigade. Enough to see Seine-Saint-Denis in a different way than in macadamized territory.
In any case, this is the bet of the departmental council, which would like to make “Valbon” a central location during the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP), and after. If the promotional poster may leave you perplexed, Stéphane Troussel, the president (Socialist Party) of the department, is keen to clarify the message by strolling through the paths of the park: “It is both an invitation to locals to take part in the great celebration of the Games here and an incentive to discover the park for those who do not yet know it. We welcome two million visitors per year, that could be twice as many, especially since the park will be better and better served by transport. »
Five thousand people during the day, ten thousand in the evening
The arrival of the Olympic flame on July 25 will mark the start of the festivities in Valbon in what the organizers call a “live site” – “a fan zone” – which will last until August 11, then reopen for three days during the Paralympic Games at the end of August.
This space will cost 4 million euros, largely financed by the department, with various aid, including that of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop) and the Métropole du Grand Paris, to the tune of 500,000 euros each. Its design was entrusted to the event company Eventeam.
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