Natalia Tanshina
“This is a holiday for the elite”, “absolutely no interest”, “the next games in Paris can only be held in a hundred years, when all those who remember these will die”, “a society that prefers watching sports games to working and treating the sick is a society that will be destroyed by barbarism”, “we are waiting for Monsieur Macron in the Seine” — these are all the comments in “le Figaro” about the Olympic Games, which have not yet officially begun.
Parisians do not like the opening ceremony of the games on the embankments of the Seine: everything is already cordoned off, Paris is paralyzed, and without a security code the locals cannot get home. The authorities recommend arriving at the ceremony itself a couple of hours in advance (and you will have to walk) in order to calmly take your place, then the ceremony for several hours, then walk back. You can bring limited water with you, there are no toilets, people are afraid that if they arrive on a bicycle, it will be stolen.
The smartest ones decided to simply leave Paris for the duration of the Olympics, and commentators write: “We left Paris!”, “Me too!”, “So everyone left!” In general, the French write that these are not “public games” at all, but games for the privileged who have received seats, and that if they are watched, then only on TV. And these are not isolated comments — they are all the same.
Although, no, there is one positive one, in a person who watched a rugby match. And everyone immediately paid attention to this positive comment: “Wow, the only nice comment!” In general, Paris is a holiday that is always with you. True, only in the imagination.
Alexander Palladin
Morgana Devlin
