Emmanuel Macron inaugurates the Olympic village this Thursday February 29.
Located between Saint-Ouen, Saint-Denis and L’Ile-Saint-Denis, the Olympic village for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be officially inaugurated this Thursday, February 29, by President Emmanuel Macron. In total, there are 330,000 m2 of floor space; 52 hectares, or 70 football fields and 14,250 beds, which were created for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The titanic project was completed without exceeding the budget of 4.5 billion euros (including 1.7 of which was public money). Its promoters also praise a project made in France: “99% of the companies are French. 2,200 VSEs and SMEs, coming from 86 departments, worked. All of France built the Olympic Village”, explains Nicolas Ferrand, executive general director of the Solideo (public establishment responsible for the construction and renovation of Olympic and Paralympic infrastructures) at Le Figaro.
“The accommodations are oversized, they had to be accessible to Paralympic athletes. This includes the width of the doors, the width of the corridors, the heights of the sockets, the colors, so as not to have white on white, for people suffering from problems of view. There was also a lot of work in the shower to make it easy to move around in”, also explains Florence Chahid-Nourai, Île-de-France project director at Icade
An “Olympic square” is also planned in this village. “A spiral reminiscent of the rings. This is where the athletes will be welcomed, where they will be able to meet their families and the journalists. The most symbolic heart of the Village is there. There will be the flags, the light shows . With, behind, what will be the town hall during the Games and a building which will accommodate athletes, then the Ministry of the Interior,” confides Nicolas Ferrand
A restaurant with more than 3,200 seats in the cinema city and another with 600 seats on Saint-Denis Island will be available to athletes. “Residents of the Olympic Village can come 50 times a day, it’s unlimited and open 24/7,” explains Laurent Pasteur, director of Sodexo Live. Add to that “six grab and go (6 a.m. to 9 p.m.)” across the entire area. Despite the presence of numerous Coca Cola fountains, junk food will not really be there with the presence of chefs Amandine Chaignot, Alexandre Mazzia and Akrame Benallal.
Four catering areas, one for French cuisine, one for Caribbean and African cuisine, one international and one Asian, in addition to the salad bar, will allow each athlete to respect their own diet.
If a nursery should appear, the village will not be accessible to families and especially to the children of athletes. French Olympic athletes who wish to do so will be able to meet their children in the mixed zone, around the athletes’ square, between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. with an accompanying person, but like any non-accredited person, the family and children will not be able to sleep in the apartments of the village.
Everything is not completely ready despite the inauguration, around 9,000 trees and shrubs have yet to green the public spaces of the site. On Saint-Denis Island, three buildings (representing 500 beds), having suffered from operational problems, should only be delivered between March 15 and 30.
Remember that after the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Village will be transformed into a district capable of accommodating 6,000 residents (in family and student housing, including 25% social housing on average) and 6,000 employees.