Overcrowded public transport, skyrocketing prices and mountains of rubbish: Paris's infrastructure is already overloaded. So how will the “City of Lights” survive the onslaught of tourists when it hosts not only Fashion Week, as usual, but also the Olympic Games in the summer of 2024?
The best way to feel the pulse of a city in Paris, as in any other metropolis, is to get stuck in a traffic jam and chat to the taxi driver. The whole city currently seems to be a single construction site, which often more than doubles the usual, already long journey times.
So you have a lot of time to chat and the driver's declared favorite enemy is: Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris since 2014. Traffic jams existed long before her term in office, but no predecessor had such a massive impact on city traffic to the detriment of drivers: it's not just the Rue de Rivoli shopping and promenade – from the town hall along the Louvre to the Place de la Concorde today a chaotic bicycle highway that can only be used by buses, taxis and cars with special permits. Many other major traffic axes that used to have four lanes have already lost two lanes to cycle paths or are in the process of doing so.
As a fair-weather cyclist, that's fine with me, but the bike isn't always the right vehicle – and not for everyone. Who wants to pedal in a long evening dress on the way to a soirée? A metro ride is no longer recommended if it is glamorous.
Even men with luxury watches on their wrists risk being brutally attacked and choked to the point of unconsciousness by specialized gangs on the street, in garages or doorways in broad daylight. There are up to 600 such watch robberies in the city every year, so many that the police have now set up a special brigade without solving the problem.
If you want to show what you have in Paris today, you should no longer do it on the street or on public transport. All that remains outside is the protected space of a centrally locked car. Especially now, in the dark season, the Uber app is a warm friend to me, especially since the climate-conscious Hidalgo has also banned heating of the famous Parisian café terraces. After an aperitif, I'm frozen and standing in a traffic jam talking to the chauffeur about this woman's politics.
37 million tourists visit Paris every year
Everyone is wondering how the city's infrastructure, which is already on the verge of collapse, can cope with the 15 million expected visitors to the Olympic Games. Paris is the most visited city in the world, but the approximately 37 million tourists are spread out throughout the year. Hotel prices have more than quadrupled during the games; even on platforms such as Airbnb and rental agencies for private apartments, the average overnight price is currently 974 euros.
If you go to Hidalgo, all guests should ride a bike, metro, tram or bus. Knowing full well that public transport is already full to bursting during peak hours on normal days, ticket prices for everyone, citizens and guests, are doubled: from July 20th to September 8th, the end of the Paralympics. Instead of 2.15 euros, a one-way trip costs a sporty 4 euros. “Are you going or are you staying?” Do you rent out your apartment? How much for the night?” is already the number 1 party topic among Parisians today.
Haute Couture Week, which normally takes place in early July, has also been brought forward to the end of June. Otherwise, the organizers fear chaos, as many of the central city monuments in and on which the houses like to present their designs will be temporarily converted into venues for the games: such as the Field of Mars at the Eiffel Tower, the Alexander III Bridge, the Invalides or the Place de la Concorde.
There is no interference with the beautiful cityscape of the city center through large new buildings. The Olympic Village for the 10,500 athletes is being built in the focal district of Saint-Denis and that's why you give it a wide berth if you can. As well as the Arena Nord at the Porte de la Chapelle. The old strategy of outsourcing to the outskirts of the city.
The redesign of the center of Paris continues with Anne Hidalgo, especially on the streets: The socialist with the green mission held a referendum last fall as to whether electric rental scooters should continue to drive through the city or not.
Don't do that anymore. This year she also wants to put an end to the SUV. From 2025 you should be able to swim in a cleaned Seine, she promised in her New Year's speech. At the same time, residents complain about the city's increasing pollution and share images on social media of hordes of rats roaming around the city's few green spaces. Even the former First Lady Carla Bruni posted a selfie on a pile of garbage on a sidewalk and thanked Madame Hidalgo by name.
During her two terms in office, the city's debts climbed from four to eight billion euros, and now she has broken her last election promise from 2020 not to allow municipal taxes on housing and property to rise any further – and shocked the citizens in November with a 62 % increase. Of course, the Olympic Games, which burden the budget with another half a billion euros, have nothing to do with this.
The light of Paris!
Hidalgo is something like the German traffic light coalition in one person and as popular as herpes. Around 70 percent would rather drive her out of office today than tomorrow. Even if Hidalgo is not to blame for everything: the Paris of today is different from the dream city to which I moved in 2011 and made it my second home. For probably the same reasons that it still attracts millions of people from all over the world today and despite everything: this beauty, whose elegance, way of life, culture and magnificent boulevards are truly enchanting. And the light!
My first fashion shows at Chanel or the Hermès show jumping tournament in the impressive Grand Palais remain unforgettable highlights – glamor and grandeur, simply no other city can do it as well as Paris. By the way, the historic glass palace, which is still being renovated, will be partially opened for the Olympic Games: the taekwondo and fencing competitions will take place here. I was deeply in love with this city for four years, then came the attacks on November 13, 2015, a trauma that still has an impact and is triggered with every new Islamist attack. Since then, the city has been in constant crisis mode: the violent Gilets Jaunes protests that filled the streets with the smell of tear gas for months, then the pandemic that sent us collectively into house arrest.
The phenomenon “Emily in Paris”, a pleasant bubble bath full of Paris clichés, came into these leaden times. The drama of the wet PR woman from Chicago, who experiences her culture clash in Paris, became the most successful comedy series of 2020 with 58 million viewers on Netflix. No series, no film has ever played so virtuoso and amusing with absolutely true and insanely false stereotypes, with pointed inside jokes and fashion satire.
Golden mood at the luxury world market leader
The series gave the city a new travel boom. In 2022 everyone was back: the tourists, the Americans, the live fashion shows, the soirées and gala events. My friend, who looks after wealthy Americans in Paris for a travel agency, has been booming since then: private jets from the USA land at Le Bourget Airport almost every day in spring and summer. The friend organizes shopping tours with limousines and “Fastlane” so that none of the customers have to wait in line at Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior or Hermès. Traffic jams in the car are not so noticeable in the elegant, fully equipped rear.
There is no crisis in the luxury league; growth rates are solid in the double digits. The French world market leader LVMH is in the mood for gold and is supporting the Olympic Games in its home country as a premium partner: The Berluti brand will dress the French athletes at the opening ceremony on the Seine, the cosmetics house Séphora will sponsor the Olympic torch relay, Moët Hennessy will provide champagne and spirits Jeweler Chaumet makes the medals, and Louis Vuitton and Dior have named Olympic and Paralympic athletes as their brand ambassadors. The list is expanded on a weekly basis.
But the city, beyond its glossy image, remains a powder keg. Last year, angry mobs again set fires and looted in Paris – first because of pension reform, then because of Nahel, a teenager who was shot by a police officer.
And when the Gaza war began in October, I heard the cries of “Allahu Akbar” from the many banned anti-Israel demonstrations on the Place de la République all the way to my desk. One match is enough to ignite an inferno of violence.
Of course, I would like to see a peaceful summer fairytale for Paris, like the one Berlin experienced during the 2006 World Cup. We really deserve it. In preparation there is the fourth season of “Emily in Paris”, filming of which will start this winter due to the games. At least you can indulge in it reliably: it shows a dreamed Paris that many Parisians still carry in their hearts and don't want to let go of. Then a glass of champagne!
