Macron inaugurates Olympic Village for 2024 Paris Games

The keys to the Paris 2024 athletes' village were officially handed to Olympics organisers as President Emmanuel Macron visited the site on Thursday.

France's President Emmanuel Macron visits the Paris 2024 Olympic village in Saint-Denis, northern Paris, on 29 February, 2024. AFP - LUDOVIC MARIN

The 52-hectare village, just north of Paris, will host some 14,500 athletes and staff before welcoming a further 9,000 for the Paralympics.

After the Games, the village will be transformed into an eco-friendly neighbourhood benefiting 6,000 residents and featuring two schools, a hotel, a public park, shops and offices plus planted areas for pedestrians and non-motorised vehicles.

"It will become, after the Games, a real neighbourhood for the inhabitants of Seine Saint Denis," Macron said, referring to the name of the department.

Le village olympique et paralympique en Seine-Saint-Denis, c’est la France ! pic.twitter.com/PJTrXl3opr

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) February 29, 2024

Nicolas Ferrand, head of Solideo, the company in charge of delivering the Olympics infrastructure, added: "It is a masterpiece of what the French construction industry can do."

Ferrand handed a symbolic key of the village to Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet, officially concluding a seven-year journey since Paris was awarded the Games.

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'On time'

The inauguration was attended by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, locally elected representatives, region president Valerie Pecresse and Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera.

"We are, I am, proud of the work you've done, within budget and on time," Macron told workers on site.

"Our athletes will be able to experience the Games in the best conditions and you contributed to changing the lives of the inhabitants of the area.

A worker walks through the construction site of the Olympic village where the athletes will be housed in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, a nearby suburb of Paris, on February 27, 2024. AFP - IAN LANGSDON

"You are part of an adventure that will mark our century."

Macron went on to hail France as a "nation of builders". He said: "What has been done on time and within budget as we finalise the reconstruction of Notre-Dame is nothing short remarkable."

Notre-Dame is set to reopen for religious services and to the public on 8 December this year, the cathedral having been renovated after being ravaged by fire in 2019.

(with newswires)