France is to bid a final and reluctant farewell to the Paris Olympics on Saturday with a parade on the Champs-Elysees followed by a concert featuring artists from the opening and closing ceremonies.
The final event of a highly acclaimed summer of sport has been organised at the behest of President Emmanuel Macron who is set to decorate many of France’s medal winners with the country’s top award, the Legion d’Honneur.
Around 4,000 police are expected on duty, with the security services facing one final test after winning almost unanimous praise for the way they kept the Games and their 12 million spectators safe.
Around 70,000 people have applied for free tickets for the parade of athletes, volunteers and public sector workers on Saturday which will be followed by music on a stage that has been erected all around the Arc de Triomphe monument.
“We’re delighted to be able to offer another great moment to celebrate the France team’s athletes at a strategic location,” chief organiser Tony Estanguet told reporters on Friday. “We are going to really try to finish this adventure in the most beautiful way.”
The 46-year-old said he “still can’t quite believe that it’s over.”
After months of gloom and self-doubt in the run-up to the start of the Olympics on July 26, Paris and the country at large threw themselves into the spirit of the Games, embracing new national sporting heroes such as swimmer Leon Marchand along the way.
The French team finished with a record medals haul of 64, including 16 golds, securing fifth place on the table.
The Paralympic Games from August 28-September 8 were hailed as “the most spectacular ever” by the head of the International Paralympic Committee, Andrew Parsons.
Last week, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo called the events an “enchanted period” and urged people not to return to the “sad passions” of daily life.
She was referring to the morose national mood and self-doubt in France before the Olympics, made worse by snap parliamentary elections called by Macron in June that produced a hung parliament and ongoing political instability.
Escapism
Analysts say the Games served as a form of escapism for many French people as well as generating a rare form of national union and pride — but the effects are not expected to last long.
“We need to respond to this spirit of the Games, of this national harmony that was expressed,” Macron told the Parisien newspaper on Friday.
The embattled leader is keen to take advantage of the afterglow of the Games and has announced his intention to create an Olympics-inspired “national day of sport” every year on September 14.
“We need to spend time together at a day of sport, which would take place in the street, schools, in dedicated sports centres,” he told the Parisien.
Saturday night’s concert will feature singer Chris, formerly of Christine & the Queens, who performed at the Paralympics opening ceremony, as well as blind Malian duo Amadou & Mariam among others.
Around 300 French athletes and parathletes will take part in the parade which will feature 7,000-800 people in total, including volunteers and public sector workers such as refuse collectors.
