Paris booksellers won't let their street stands along the Seine be removed for the 2024 Olympics
Paris booksellers who work on the banks of the River Seine for decades are refusing to leave during the Paris Olympics next year
PARIS — The 2024 Paris Olympics ’ opening ceremony will be held on the famed River Seine, taking place outside of a sports venue for the first time in the Games’ history. But for the booksellers who have found a centuries-old sanctuary on the river banks, that day is all but ceremonious.
The city of Paris vowed to deliver an extraordinary grand opening on July 26 next year which is expected to draw about 600,000 spectators. As a result, the Paris police prefecture has ordered the removal a day before the ceremony of 570 “stationary boxes” — street stands out of which booksellers have operated for decades on the quays of the Seine.
Citing security concerns, the prefecture fears that the boxes could be used to conceal explosive devices during the opening ceremony, which will see the parade of over 10,500 athletes from 206 delegations along the river as hundreds of thousands of spectators watch on.
A number of the traditionally dark-green boxes have not been moved for decades, some for over a century, and booksellers denounce the prefecture’s decision. They also worry that the city would cause irrecoverable damage to the age-old boxes by removing them.
“We are a symbol of Paris,” said Jérôme Callais, who’s been selling books on the quayside since the 90s and who heads the Cultural Association of Booksellers of Paris, which advocates for the safeguarding of the boxes. “It’s as if the prefecture decided that the Eiffel Tower was too high and that the third and second floors had to be removed because they came within the scope of the cameras during the ceremony.”
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