At the end, the president of the organizing committee, Tony Estanguet, welcomed the first “very positive” feedback and the “crazy potential” of this course on the Seine. It will be necessary to learn the “lessons”, including by fully debriefing with “the boatmen to see how they experienced all this”. For the needs of this parade, which started at 6:30 am Monday morning from the Austerlitz bridge, navigation on the river was stopped from 4:00 am until 12:00 pm.
Thirty-nine boats of all sizes, fictitiously representing the delegations, made two passages, that is to say twice the six kilometers between the Pont d’Austerlitz and the Pont d’Iéna. The first boats – they are all numbered – had on board passengers with signs as if to represent the delegations, AFP noted. But the others sailed empty and incognito, in general indifference.
Difficult indeed for onlookers or Parisian workers spinning at full speed on their bikes along Paris-plage to notice something. The only clues: a police or gendarmerie truck stationed on each bridge along the route, and a few police officers on motorcycles or scooters patrolling the top or bottom of the platforms.
“Technical” test
On the water, on either side of this convoy which sails at 9 km/h, semi-rigid boats ensure safety (assistance, first aid, etc.). At the Musée d’Orsay, a Paris fire boat parks and monitors the area and a firefighter in overalls is ready to intervene at the slightest call on his walkie-talkie.
A little further, at the level of the Eiffel Tower, it is a brigade, the new “Brav -N”, which rushes with its new star. This is a “technical” test, explained the organizers of the Paris Olympics upstream, to time the journey, manage the distances between the boats, or even test the communications.
Also camera tests for OBS (Olympic Broadcasting System), Olympic TV broadcaster. “We must also test a new way of filming the ceremony”, indeed explained Thierry Reboul, director of events and ceremonies, at the origin of the concept. An engine damage test was carried out on Monday morning, he said at the end.
On the other hand, on this Monday morning, there is no question of seeing anything of the show conceived by the theater director, Thomas Jolly, because the secret will be kept until D-Day of this unprecedented event. On July 26, 2024 at 8:24 p.m., more than a hundred boats will transport more than 200 delegations from all over the world.
The organizers are betting a lot on this ceremony, which for the first time will be held outside the stadium. About 100,000 people will be able to attend by paying for their places on the lower banks of the Seine and several hundred thousand others on the upper banks for free.
A real headache
Securing this gigantic outdoor party, on a river, in the presence of athletes and heads of state from all over the world, is a real headache. The high quays will be divided into 15 or 20 sections, police and political sources have told AFP for several weeks. The overall figure has varied in recent months and has yet to be made official. Announced at 600,000 at the start, all places combined, the figure would rather be a maximum of 500,000 including 400,000 free, according to these same sources.
Asked about the subject at the end, the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, replied: “we are working on it”, referring to “announcements in the fall on the high quays”. On the police side, the chief of staff of the prefect of police, Magali Charbonneau, had indicated that the command and coordination devices would be “tested”, in particular the radio networks. “Given the numbers announced, our radio architecture is not ready,” a police source recently told AFP.
“850 police officers and firefighters were mobilized”, specified the prefect of police of Paris Laurent Nunez at the end, and “a few exercises were tested on the river”, such as “rescue to people in a very discreet way so as not to disrupt the parade”.
Also tested was the joint command of the BRI, the Raid and the GIGN, three elite services which will be mobilized to “secure the ceremony and all the personalities present at the Trocadero”.