Catherine Field: France Correspondent on the dropping odds of the Seine's use in the Olympics

It’s not looking hopeful for the athletes expecting a dip in the Seine. 

Familiarisation dips for the triathlon competitors have been cancelled for two days straight. 

Officials are hoping Tuesday will see the athletes in the Seine, but with heavy rain due later in the week it’s not looking good for the long term. 

France Correspondent Catherine Field told Mike Hosking that last they’ve heard, E Coli is between three and five times above the acceptable level.  

She said that they couldn’t predict this level of rain, and they haven’t had this level of heavy rain in July for at least 20 years. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
France, Cats Froinfield. How are you.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm good, Thank you, Mike, thank you for asking.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Not at all. Reassure me that are the phones working?
Are the trains going? Have you fixed at all?

Speaker 2 (00:10):
They say it is all fixed. Yes. These two acts
of sabotage, one the major one last Friday, just before
the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. That was the
one that really got them got concern because at the
moment the authorities are leaning towards far left extremists who
carried out the sabotage. They knocked out three of the

(00:33):
main high speed train links to Paris, one to the west,
the east, one to the north, and was only by
luck that they managed to foil the one the attack
that was planned against the one to the south. So
they do say that the trains are up and running again.
Some eight hundred thousand people had their holiday departure times
completely messed up, but they are saying that it looks

(00:57):
as though it could be someone in the culture left.
And then, of course Monday mornings news was that there
was vandalism on the fiber optic cables and the network
in the south of the country across four or five
different regions. So no one yet might linking that vandalism
to the between the telecoms and the trains, but certainly

(01:19):
it's a concern when we're told to look out for
terrorism here in Paris and all this is happening outside.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Last Supper was touch and go. I think there was
always going to be a bit touch and go. But overall,
what's the vibe of that that opens? Did the locals
love it?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Love it? Eighty five percent of French people thought it
was a great success, thought it was a great way
to show the world about French history, art culture. And
there was a bit of grumbling that the Olympic organizers
apologized to the church, because of course they're the bishops
here in France and also in Italy. Complained they reckon
that that Last Supper was actually a sycology. But in

(01:56):
fact the choreographer came up yesterday in fact on television
and said it had nothing to do with the Laspa.
It represented Greek gods in ancient Greece, the home of
the Olympics, and them having their religious festival, nothing to
do with the Last Supper.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
He said, Okay, now the sin doesn't look good, and
the forecast doesn't look good to either. What are they
going to do?

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Oh, they're playing this hour by hour might Yes, they've
had to cancel those familiarization dips into the sin for
the triathletes. Had to cancel it Sunday, had to cancel
it Monday. The latest we've heard is that the coal
i is between three and five times above the acceptable level.

(02:38):
The big question mark really is you did everything go
according to playing? Okay, yes, they couldn't predict that there
was going to be so much rain during the opening ceremony,
But they say one of the biggest money wastages came
actually with that reservoir that they built at the end
of the sin going out of Paris, where all of

(02:59):
the sewer she was meant to go, and it was
meant to go in there and not into the river.
They say that was just a waste of money. Just
too many pipes connected up, too much could have gone wrong.
And in fact, the plumbing of homes in Paris should
have been dealt with decades ago and not just a
couple of years ago as the Olympics was approaching.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Okay, this business of the rain, is it unusual to
rain this much in Paris? In the latter part of July.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
It is yeah, really unusual. I haven't had this sort
of heavy rain for at least twenty years. The reason
the locals aren't complaining, Mike, is because we've had so
many DRAMs lately, the climate change. We've had that, so
the locals think it's great, Yes, let it rain, because
then the rain stops and we get the temperatures that
we've now got for today and tomorrow, which is about

(03:45):
thirty five degrees. It's great heat waves. So if the
rains come, then enjoy it, because the heat will come
after it.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
What as a pleasure, casine go, Well, we'll catch up
next week. Casperinfield and France. My daughter has has been
literally at the moment she said it was twenty five
the other day. It doesn't seem to be the sort
of the summer the last couple of summers we've experienced
in Europe, those high thirties, early forties and the stories
of elderly people dying and stuff. It seems to be
a wet and coolish sort of summer. If you watch
the f one in Belgium. Got a son in London.

(04:11):
He says it's permanently raining and cold. In that part
of the world at the moment, so Europe seems to
be having a very mild, if not wet summer. For
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