PARIS — The 2024 Paris Olympics ’ opening ceremony will likely be held on the famed River Seine, going down exterior of a sports venue for the primary time within the Games’ historical past. But for the booksellers who've discovered a centuries-old sanctuary on the river banks, that day is all however ceremonious.

The metropolis of Paris vowed to ship a unprecedented grand opening on July 26 subsequent yr which is predicted to attract about 600,000 spectators. As a end result, the Paris police prefecture has ordered the removing a day earlier than the ceremony of 570 “stationary boxes” - avenue stands out of which booksellers have operated for many years on the quays of the Seine.

Citing safety considerations, the prefecture fears that the packing containers may very well be used to hide explosive gadgets in the course of the opening ceremony, which is able to see the parade of over 10,500 athletes from 206 delegations alongside the river as lots of of hundreds of spectators watch on.

Quite a lot of the historically dark-green packing containers haven't been moved for many years, some for over a century, and booksellers denounce the prefecture’s resolution. They additionally fear that the town would trigger irrecoverable injury to the age-old packing containers by eradicating them.

“We are a symbol of Paris,” stated Jérôme Callais, who’s been promoting books on the quayside for the reason that 90s and who heads the Cultural Association of Booksellers of Paris, which advocates for the safeguarding of the packing containers. “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.”

Paris metropolis corridor supplied to renovate or substitute the packing containers without charge after removing, however the booksellers’ affiliation, which now has 200 members, is bent on retaining them in place, as they're.

PHOTOS: Paris booksellers will not let their avenue stands alongside the Seine be eliminated for the 2024 Olympics

“We agree that we will not move,” added Callais. “Yes, we can have a conversation, but it’s out of the question to touch our boxes.”

In return, the booksellers’ affiliation proposed that the packing containers be sealed earlier than and all through the Olympics’ opening ceremony. Callais additionally referred to Queen Elizabeth II’s first royal go to to Paris in 1957, which noticed a big parade within the Seine river whereas not one of the packing containers have been eliminated.

But even when it weren’t for safety causes, Pierre Rabadan, deputy mayor of Paris in control of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Seine, insisted in a gathering with the booksellers in July that the packing containers wanted to be eliminated as a result of they hinder the view.

Paris metropolis corridor has not responded to requests for remark.

Paris 2024 organizing committee president, Tony Estanguet, advised The Associated Press that placing collectively such an occasion because the Games “would not come without consequences” to native traditions.

“Booksellers are part of our history,” Estanguet stated. “It’s an incredible activity … but it’s true that their proximity (to the Seine) means that for some of them there is an incompatibility with the normal organization” of the Games, he added. “So we must find solutions.”

“It’s a real challenge, because we’re taking the sport out of the stadiums and we’re going into the city,” Estanguet added. “We’ll have to close roads - we’ll have to change the habits of local residents, businesses, and booksellers, because we are in the city. It’s once every 100 years.”

As of now, there was no set date on when the booksellers ought to go away the quays. But whereas permits are often being offered by the town to booksellers for a full yr going from August 1 to July 31, this time they've solely been given for as much as June 30 subsequent yr.

“Maybe there’s just no other way to go about it,” stated Jérôme Piel, a French customer from Normandy, who thinks the town shouldn't take away the packing containers. “At this point, they should also remove all the trees then.”

“It’s what Paris is and that’s why we shouldn’t be able to remove that stuff,” Kevin Davis, a vacationer from the United States, stated. “Can you imagine coming here and not seeing this? It doesn’t make sense. I’ve been coming here for 15 years. That’s part of the charm of coming.”

A petition demanding the safeguarding of the open-air bookshops, launched final month, has now over 120,000 signatures.

“The only thing we ask is that they don’t touch our boxes,” Callais stated. “We are fragile enough as it is. We want to last a few more centuries.”

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