Paris is heading for an Olympic-sized disaster

Paris sets an unbeatable scene for an event the magnitude of the Olympic Games. The picture-perfect backdrop is already there, and Paris 2024’s promotional videos include horses cantering past the fountains of an empty Versailles, breakdancing on the Place de la Concorde, which is uncharacteristically devoid of litter, and cyclists whizzing around the Arc de Triomphe, where cars usually sit in a fume-filled traffic jams. Behind this idyllic portrayal, however, problem after problem rears its ugly head.

Let’s scratch the big itch first – bed bugs. During the autumn of 2023, it seemed that Paris, and France at large, had become awash with a veritable plague of mites. Freezers to decontaminate possessions became hot commodities on the secondhand website Leboncoin. Locals took to wrapping their train seats in bin bags to avoid becoming hosts to the bloodsucking little insects, and it appears that Paris’s bed bug crisis still isn’t under control.

At much the same time, the city’s bin collectors went on strike, leaving overflowing piles of rubbish on Parisian streets for weeks on end. It’s perhaps unsurprising with all this insalubrity that Paris’s rat problem has become a talking point, going viral on TikTok. The city’s rat population was estimated at four million as recently as 2020.

France is a country where a good protest runs in the veins of its people even more potently than a love of fine wine and cheese, but it seems they’re surpassing themselves of late. Workers for SNCF (France’s national rail system) have already been on strike two out of four weekends in February, but it’s farmers that have dominated the news, protesting the long list of rules and regulations they have to navigate – everything from the correct way to hedge a field to the minimum width of a chicken cage. What began as a peaceful protest, turning road signs upside-down around the country in late 2023, quickly escalated to blockading major cities, Paris included, with hay bales and tractors, making movement impossible.

We’ve also seen climate protests, with a group called Riposte Alimentaire (Food Response) throwing soup over the Mona Lisa in January. The Louvre, incidentally, where the painting is on display, hiked its entrance fee by €5 this year – the first increase in seven years, no doubt strategically planned to profit from the influx of tourists.

Earlier this month, even France’s most famous landmark was on strike. Workers at the Eiffel Tower, unhappy with the way the building is managed, marched out, leaving it closed for six days in the middle of the school holidays. So has all the chaos left Parisians feeling lukewarm about hosting the Games – and will it spoil the experience for the 15 million visitors expected in the city during the event?

For many residents, a big talking point is how the Olympics is making an existing housing crisis even worse. Johanna Guibert, a business studies student, said: “So many of my friends are being evicted from their flats in June so that their landlords can let them out at inflated prices during the Olympics. If I didn’t personally know my landlord I could be in the same boat.”

Paris already has one of the highest costs of living in the country, with a one-bedroom rental costing on average €1,362 (£1,166) per month. During the Games, those evicted may find it impossible to find somewhere within their budget, as an increasing number of homeowners list their properties on platforms like Airbnb.

A homelessness crisis is also growing, with 44 per cent of all homeless people in France found in Paris – hardly the sort of image the city wants to project when the eyes of the world are watching. Change Please trains homeless Parisians to equip them with barista skills to help them to get back on their feet. “Unfortunately, the plan seems to be simply to move people during the Olympics,” says Xavier de Parseval, one of the founders of its Parisian branch. “From what we’ve heard and read, I don’t believe housing will be found for them, they’ll just be shifted to parts of town where they’re less visible to tourists.”

The French government has advised Parisians to limit their journeys during the Olympics to minimise putting too much strain on the transport system, and to work from home where possible. As a result, many businesses have chosen to close for annual leave for the duration of the event, but in some sectors it just isn’t feasible.

In many parts of Paris, construction between mid-June and mid-September has been banned entirely, unless it can be proven to be an emergency. “It’s still unclear if we’ll be able to continue working on construction projects during the Olympics,” says Morgane Allard, an architect. “It was originally communicated that scaffolding would be banned for the duration of the Olympics and Paralympics because it’s an eyesore – but erecting and dismantling scaffolding or stopping a construction project is an expensive business.”

But the biggest worry of all for many Parisians is how the city’s already shaky transport system will cope. Ticket prices are due to double during the Games, and Metro lines 6, 8 and 14 all closed during the February school holidays for an upgrade, causing considerable inconvenience to families.

“Travel in Paris has been really complicated this year,” says Thibault Barbou, a consultant. “Everything is under construction. It’s impossible to update all the outdated lines, and there aren’t enough train drivers already. I can picture the scenes during the Olympics already, as train after train gets held up because someone has left their bag in a carriage.”

Léo Leclerc, who works in insurance, adds: “The Metro lines are already saturated and the transport system is falling into disrepair. I bike to work, but not everyone can do that. Take people with physical disabilities, for example. There seems to be a refusal to install elevators at certain Metro stations when there’s not the means to install them everywhere, so what’s the alternative for them? A bus that only runs every 20 minutes or so?”

No doubt the Olympics will look exquisite on television — beach volleyball under the Eiffel Tower is a scene to blow Emily in Paris out of the water. But what will it be like on the ground? Last year, five consecutive days of rioting and looting shook the capital after an unarmed 17-year-old was killed by a policeman. With all the discontentment on the part of farmers, transport workers and climate protesters alike, will it all come to a head when Paris is in the spotlight?

It’s clear that efforts are being made to clean up Paris’s image, and fast. Hotels, fearful of a damaged reputation if visitors’ lasting souvenirs of the Olympics are an infestation of bed bugs, have hired sniffer dogs to try to detect them, but it’s a costly business, around €30 per hotel room. Increasing concerns about widespread dealing of crack cocaine in Paris’s 19th arrondissement led to the head of police, Laurent Nuñez, appearing on television to assure the public all would be fixed before the Olympics. With just over four months to go, though, there’s a risk that the Games could do more harm than good to Paris’s reputation.

The French government has put together a guide with an interactive map to help Parisians and visitors alike plan their journeys during the Games. It includes live updates on Metro line closures, road closures and traffic conditions, and can be found at anticiperlesjeux.gouv.fr