Allez La France: Olympics unite nation as flowing medals add to holiday spirit

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The bestselling American author Douglas Kennedy once said that if leisure ever became an Olympic event, France would always win gold.

Kennedy, a fluent French speaker who knows the country inside out, had a point. Even in challenging times for household budgets, the French take their holidays seriously.

Inject into the summer season the thrills of actual Olympics, with national pride fuelled by an early flow of gold, and the resulting combination is a potent one.

Medal-winning exploits and a fierce commitment to prioritising time off have come together in France in the first week of the Paris Olympics, nowhere more strikingly than on the Cote d’Azur.

Nice is the capital of a region that acts as such a powerful magnet for holidaymakers.

And in what has come to be seen as a dramatic curtain-raiser, it was handed an early Olympics dividend.

Tour bonus

A few days before the spectacular, if controversial, opening ceremony in Paris, Nice benefitted from Games-related road disruption in the capital to host the finale to the Tour de France.

For one exceptional year, the climax of the race was not riders making successive loops of the heart of the capital, ending on the Champs-Elysees. Instead, led by the Slovenian winner Tadez Pogacar, representing the UCI World Team Emirates, competitors staged a finishing sprint to the elegant Place Massena, just off Nice’s Promenade des Anglais.

Viewed from the Riviera a few days before the Olympics opened, this historic departure from tradition felt almost as important as the Games themselves.

UAE Team Emirates rider Tadej Pogacar races through Nice, during the final stage of the 111th Tour de France. AFP

Only later did polemic stirred by the Paris ceremony, followed by sterling athletic endeavour, ease the Tour de France out of minds along the Mediterranean coast.

View from the south

The French are confirmed sports lovers. And interest in the Games has at times been phenomenal – not only in Paris but wherever in the country events have been held.

Even in places far from Olympic action, the fervour is tangible.

West of Nice, in the pretty little resort of Le Lavandou, midway between chic Saint-Tropez and the important naval port of Toulon, holidaymakers and locals alike gathered along the seafront in rows of seats in front of a giant screen beaming France 2 coverage of the opening ceremony, which was watched by 23.4 million viewers.

Paris Club 2024 at Promenade du Paillon in Nice. Getty Images

“Maybe it’s not quite Paris,” said Eliott Senges, 22, from Puy-de-Dome in central France. “But it’s not raining here.”

With a friend, Mathias Vernat, 17, from Lyon, he grabbed a place an hour before the ceremony began.

Eliott and Mathias relished their “extraordinary” experience, reckoning that applause at the seaside matched that of spectators in Paris, in enthusiasm if not volume.

There was dissent. When one spectator in Le Lavandou sent a social media message saying “at least it wasn’t raining here”, another replied: “Yes, but otherwise it was rubbish.”

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony - in pictures

For Olympics organisers, gushing commentators and admiring spectators, whether rainsoaked in the capital or enjoying a balmy Mediterranean evening, Eliott more accurately reflected popular opinion.

“We’re proud of this ceremony and the French talent on show,” he said.

The morning after brought further reflection and bitterly opposing views. For many, it boiled down to whether the non-French talent of Celine Dion, in breathtaking form after four years of performing silence due to a rare neurological condition, saved the show or added fitting final glory.

Le Lavandou is politically ultra-conservative, part of the large Var department which, in recent legislative elections, voted for Marine Le Pen’s far right National Rally in seven of its eight constituencies.

France supporters during the Olympics sailing competition in Marseille. Reuters

And it was from the far right and elements of the conventional right that the most outspoken criticism came. The local newspaper, Var-Matin, led its round-up of reactions with the hearty acclamation of the left, greens and far left, but cited Le Penist condemnation.

“What shame,” a National Rally spokesman said, evoking the “vandalising of French culture”. Worse was to come: “everything was ugly, everything was woke”, thundered Philippe de Villiers, an aristocratic, anti-EU figure.

President Emmanuel Macron, whose most popular decision in a torrid 2024 may have been to limit his opening ceremony remarks to simply declaring the Games open, naturally differed. Later, he praised performers for a “unique, magical moment”.

Euphoria kicks in

The acrimony faded in any case as athletes got down to serious business. National glee was undivided as France rose on the medals table. Swimming champion Leon Marchand became only the sixth French competitor to win three golds in the same Olympics.

Marchand is from Toulouse, also in the south, but Var-Matin snatched some reflected glory from a more “local” success, its front page trumpeting Pauline Ferrand-Prevot’s stunning victory in cross-country cycling. Although born in the north-eastern city of Reims, she was made an honorary Varoise – woman of the Var – because she perfected her skills in Frejus, trained in neighbouring Saint-Raphael and has a home there.

French gold medallist Leon Marchand stands on the podium after winning the men's 200m breaststroke swimming event. AFP

The paper noted that supporters broke into successive bursts of the national anthem, La Marseillaise, as Ferrand-Prevot told reporters of the “victory of my life”.

Other golds came in the men’s rugby sevens, men’s canoe slalom, triathlon and women’s sabre. There was a clutch of silvers and bronzes in disciplines including judo, archery and more fencing.

“The more medals France win, the more people talk about that and the less they talk about the opening,” said Raphael Dupouy, Le Lavandou’s municipal director of culture.

For him, some French triumphs felt like a family affair. His son Maurin and daughter Alisson were accomplished judo competitors when young, Alisson at national level, while Maurin also played rugby.

Mr Dupouy practises aikido and takes pride in France’s prowess in martial arts as well as rugby. “It’s a very sporty family, so we’re watching the Games with enormous interest,” he said.

Other than the big screen for the opening, Le Lavandou’s involvement has been modest. A party of teenagers was taken to Marseille to join 60,000 fans at the first group game of Thierry Henry’s under-23s, a 3-0 win against the USA. And residents of a care home, led by 101-year-old Liliane Schiff, recreated the flame-bearing rituals of Paris.

Summer days

However, the stream of medals captured public attention. The clash of euphoria and fury about the opening ceremony having subsided, Le Lavandou took to welcoming news of athletic success while, at the same time, getting on with summer.

Mr Dupouy detected a determination to enjoy both, if only to put aside exasperation at the country’s political turmoil.

So far, 2024 looks unlikely to be a golden year for tourism. The days of families booking whole months, split between those favouring July (juillettistes) and the larger, traditionally more blue collar group (aoutiens), are largely gone. A new survey suggests 40 per cent of the French will not be going away at all this year.

A woman protects herself with an umbrella during hot weather on the 'Promenade des Anglais', on the French Riviera. AFP

But if a revolt against soaring restaurant prices has visibly caused more empty tables, roads and beaches remain crowded, irritating locals but raising hope of recovery by the end of August.

Le Lavandou is the least brash of resorts. Its ambience better suited to families and older couples than young revellers.

Even so, the population reaches six figures in high season, compared with 6,000 in winter. The biggest event of each summer each July 31 attracts thousands for a parade of floats, cleverly if oddly decorated with a Christmas flavour (this year augmented by Olympic references).

Next door to Le Lavandou, Bormes-les-Mimosas has the imposing Fort de Bregancon, France’s official presidential retreat on the Mediterranean. Some past Elysee incumbents loved it, notably Jacques Chirac, whose wife Bernadette became a key figure in the annual Bormes floral carnival. Gen Charles de Gaulle loathed it, finding the mosquitoes too attentive and, as a very tall man, the beds too short.

Mr Macron is a fan and is already spending time there with his wife Brigitte and other family members, his presence subject to interruption for official visits for Olympic and state commitments.

When the Games are over, on August 11, France will be satisfied if it has finished among the top five countries.

In Le Lavandou, talk of the Games will have quietened. Locals who depend on tourism will still have about three weeks to make up for any disappointment in July. And France will have a good idea of whether almost $10 billion (€8.97bn) on Paris 2024 – albeit overwhelmingly from Olympics and private funding – was money well spent.