Olympic Games: With one month to go, will Paris be ready?

Paris is getting set to host the Summer Olympics, with the opening ceremony set to take place in exactly one month's time. France 24 Sports editor James Vizzina joins me in the studio here for a special look at the big question, James, which is will Paris be ready in time? Wouldn't it be ready in time? Things are looking. We've got we've got a lot of positive messages come our way. Recently we've seen one of them, Line 14 of the metro being opened. That was one of the major things we saw the president's very proudly open that line. That's the line then going from the airport, one of the airports in the South to the centre of the city. Now that's one of the big things because many of the lines haven't been completed since one of the line Line 11 has been extended, but not everything or the promises that's that were that were set for these games have been delivered in terms of transport. You'll have seen on the floor, on the on on on the roads on the ring Rd. around Paris. We've got these new lanes. Well, same lanes, but they've marked them out with Paris 20 Olympics. Yes, right. And those are special lanes for athletes and for, for, for taxis to be able to go through, go through what's going to be bigger crowds. Pretty easy to paint a sign on a lane, though it's not not a great accomplishment. That's that's the thing. So it's been, it's been painted, it's there. Is it gonna work during the game. So it's gonna be like for all the people going there because and there's there's just so many questions of whether this is actually going to work during it because it's already difficult today as it is. I think we all know that traffic laws in Paris are in general, more suggestions than actual laws. So who's going to respect this lane division for one thing? Well, yeah, that was extremely good question. And they want us. They want they want people. You know, you've seen all the signs in the underground or around Paris saying, you know, prepare yourself for the Olympic, stay at home to work. It's not the best sign to put off. They've created a lot of a lot of cycling lanes, people to be able to get around. Some of the big ones are done. I walked out of my place this morning. My bus stop had disappeared. Why? Because they're still building that they're going to build a cyclic in there. So that's not done. Whether it's to do with the Olympics or after, there's still going to be a lot of building going on. And we've had this for years, people living around here. There's huge amounts of construction actually along Canal, San Martin and Canal doing work the the roadways which have been in large part pedestrian eyes, but they're torn up right now there. You can't even walk on them Well. And this the issue is, is there's there's a fatigue that definitely has been created by this because it's been going on for so many years before and it's going to be continuing after that clearly, because it's not not that everything is done. So for people living here, that is one of the worries and what that's going to be like. Then during the games, if it is going to work, we'll see boots, of course, it's not just about the transport, even though that's huge important with the millions of people who will be coming. It's also about the sights, of course. In terms of the sights, things are looking good because many of the sites being used are these historical sites. So the plus that Concord, the Eiffel Tower and these, basically all you need to do is just add some stands pretty much in, in a very brief way. There's much more than that. But in terms of temporary stands, those are prepared at the at the Eiffel Tower where there's going to be beach volleyball. It will look absolutely fantastic. Yeah, sure. It's pretty much ready. And that's going to be definitely going to be one of the sites that we're going to see the most in television because you'll have you just have a beach volleyball being played just there at the Eiffel Tower. Should be pretty cool. She and tourists are going to be able to figure it out though. The metro already, I mean, they're making efforts. You can see with the signs. Roots come for take the RER this way, the little pink icons. I'm not 100% confident that visitors from around the world will be able to decipher those and really know where they're going. Well, because it's going to be expensive, too. It's going to be. Yeah. And there's going to be masses of people. So are they going to have the patience? Are they going to be able to read all of those things? There's also one of the concern, of course, is that because before the opening ceremony, which is going to be taking along the river then open air, they're going to shut down a huge part along the river for safety reasons for terrorists to, to prevent any terrorist attacks. And that is going to block off a lot of just a lot of space for people coming and going. And that's going to impact obviously businesses around it because our delivery is going to happen. Are people going to go into the restaurant there? Because you're going to need AQR code to be able to go to to this area. Yeah, we've, we've been there before. I don't live in one of those areas, but I've heard people asking, are they going to need AQR code to get into their own streets? Exactly. So I think closer to the how things are right now. But realistically, it's going to be in the moment. What's it like? And I think no one can really predict what it's going to be like when the games actually begin or even actually just in the days before that. I think we've all got our fingers crossed. Those of us especially who lived here live here currently. James, That's Friends 24 Sports editor James Vizina. Thanks for that.