Marseille meets the world. Or is it the other way around? Question of perspective. And the view in Marseille, as we know, is sublime. If, however, some people are still unaware of it, the whole world will be able to see it on May 8, the day the Olympic flame for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games arrives in Marseille.
The event will be broadcast live in almost every country in the world: The Bélem, an old three-mast rig, will parade in Marseille Bay, dominated by the Bonne Mère, bordered by the creeks, and cut by the Frioul archipelago, pebbles rough white rocks, before entering majestically into the Old Port under the gaze of the Palais du Pharo, Fort Saint-Jean and the Mucem from which OM supporters are planning an event. All under a Provençal sun, we hope, which will make the crests of the waves ring. In other words, a postcard sent to all of humanity.
Back on land, the behind the scenes may be less wonderful. Filthy pavements, overflowing trash cans, rats and seagulls fighting over food scraps when they are not simply devouring each other, are sights to which the people of Marseillais are accustomed, but which the city would do well without displaying on television.
32,000 square meters of paving stones to be stripped for D-Day
This is why the city’s cleanliness services are working hard in the run-up to D-Day, which will see some 150,000 people and hundreds of journalists descend on the port, then on the various relay routes. of the Olympic flame. Starting with an operation to strip the 32,000 square meters of cobblestones in the Old Port. The first very high pressure jets and other thermal sprayers were unsheathed during the night from Thursday to Friday. The operation will take several days. Often blamed for public unsanitary conditions, the metropolitan services insist on the fact “that these are not exceptional operations” and that such stripping “is carried out twice a year”, “it is obvious that a effort is being made for the arrival of the Olympic flame.
“When you are going to marry your daughter, you are going to dress better than usual,” illustrates Jean-Yves Sayag, the “clean gentleman” of the metropolitan council. “Everything must be perfect and in particular the “traveler’s journey”, the one that the flame and the President of the Republic will take,” continues the elected representative of the right-wing majority. Thus, in addition to stripping the port, garbage collection agents were mobilized on May 1, so as not to fall behind schedule. “One day of collecting a failure means two or three days to make up for it,” explains Jean-Yves Sayag. These operations are complemented by the “enhanced cleanliness” system, put in place at the end of April. He plans to thoroughly clean a part of each of the city’s districts every week, so that twice a year, all the neighborhoods managed by the public service are thoroughly cleaned.
Cleanliness Olympiad
Although it is not within its direct jurisdiction, the Marseille town hall has also done its part. The XXL letters “Marseille”, installed Hollywood style at the top of a hill in the northern districts of the city, have been repainted.
It will also be necessary to manage the mountain of rubbish left by visitors of the day and spectators of the Alonzo and Soprano concert scheduled for the Old Port on the evening of May 8. Because on May 9, the festivities continue with the start of the Olympic torch relay which will reach the Vélodrome stadium at the end of the day. Everything is therefore done to try to have a clean city, at least along the path of the flame, and to shine in the eyes of the world. A cleanliness Olympics of sorts. With two uncertainties: will the mistral, quick to send garbage flying, be there? Will the collection agents take advantage of the strike notice filed by the CGT several weeks ago?