Catherine Field: France Correspondent on the situation in Paris ahead of the Olympic Games beginning

The 2024 Olympic Games are set to begin.  

President Emmanuel Macron said during a visit to the Olympic Village that France is “ready and we will be ready throughout the games”. 

Security has been ramped up in the lead up to the games, France Correspondent Catherine Field telling Mike Hosking that it’s difficult to get anywhere in the centre of Paris. 

She said that for the people living there, it’s a bit like being under lockdown, as they need a special pass just to get home. 

Hotels are also half-empty, tourists being pushed away by the intense security measures and the high accommodation costs.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catherine Field. Morning to you. Good morning mine. I'm reading
a lot about these Olympics, and I'm looking at occupancy
rights here Paris hotels eighty percent, which is below the
ninety percent for London in twenty twelve, ninety four percent
for Rio de Janeiro in twenty sixteen. What's gone wrong?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Mike? If I could find a hotel owner to tell
me he's got eighty percent occupancy, my job would be
so much easier. I have not met one that has
that much occupancy. They are lucky if they're getting seventy percent, Really, Mike,
it's I say, you know, thinking back, I think last
year when they originally came up with these completely bizarre

(00:37):
prices of eight hundred euros a night for a room,
and that was sort of, you know, the minimum price.
They've essentially just pushed themselves out of the market, pushed
tourists away. I think the other thing, Mike is security
is so intense in Paris, so anyone who was thinking
of coming here would now say, no, you cannot get

(00:58):
within about a kilometer of the Eiffel Tower. And whilst
she's beautiful to look out from a distance, it's also
quite nice to go and sit and have a look
and walk and perhaps even to visit the Eiffel Tower.
So you've got you know, there's dreadful combination MIC of
incredibly expensive hotels. You've got you can't get anywhere in
the center of Paris, and it's almost for people who

(01:20):
are living there a bit like lockdown because you have
to have a special pass to be able to get home.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Is this because of one just purely the Olympics, or
is it a French interpretation of security for the Olympics,
or it's genuinely needed and accepted by everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
It's for the opening ceremony MIC, it really is. And
this all came into play on the eighteenth of July.
And let's not forget that the opening ceremony isn't until
the twenty sixth of July. They are absolutely besides themselves
in nerves. They say they've got that forty five thousand police,
security and troops ready for that day. It is really

(01:59):
that they want to go. Well, just a couple of
hours ago, is that the lyse Pallace where Manuel Macron
was there with the IOC head Thomas Back and he said,
you guys, we thought we were crazy when we started
this idea of having it on the Seine, but now
we're going to do it. We're going to do it well,
and that's what they want, Mike. They realized this is

(02:19):
the zillion dollar tourist spot and that more people are
going to watch it on TV because they're going to
see this amazing show. They're going to see the sin,
they're going to see everything on their TV screens. And
this they're thinking of not just for the Olympics, but
also to tell people around the world, Hey, come to Paris.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Okay, is anyone going to swim in the scene and like,
I don't know, I think called the Triathlona. This is
a living work that aret you.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
They say it's going to be okay, of course we
had last week the mayor of Paris went for a
dip there and they say that they for some reason, Mike,
all of a sudden it's come very clean, and that
the two bugs that they test for in the water
at the lowest rate they've been for sever all months. However,
they have let us know that if it's not that clean,

(03:06):
then the particularly the marathon swimmers will move out to
the east of Paris into the man region, which is
where the kayak king and the canoeing area is and
they'll be able to do their marathon swims there. But
they're pretty hopeful still make even if that river is
running very fast and still looks very swollen, super.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Quick, because you know, I'm concerned. You got a government.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Oh good heaven snow, No good, heaven Snow. They're still
arguing about who they're going to put forward as the
Prime minister. But we do have a Speaker of the House.
And everyone thinks that was a rigged vote because the
former Speaker of the House, which is one of the
original Emmanuel Macron appointees, was elected back to the post.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Okay, you go, I just confirmed once again. I'm out
of time. So it's my old discipline, just that I
wasn't making this up. The surfing for the Olympics is
in Tahiti, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Tahiti is part of the French get.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
I get that. But if I'm a surfer, so I'm
stuck on a boat in the middle of nowhere, miles
thousands of miles away from the actual event, I mean
that's weird, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Well, here's the thing. What they're saying is there's always
surfing events this time of year in Tahiti, they know
they're going to get the surf. However, there are people
down in the southwest of France who have a lot
of surfers down there. That's some great waves down and birds.
They say it should have been there.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, exactly, all right. Nice to catch up, Catherine, Go
and see you next Tuesday. Catherine Field out of France.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
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