How Club France is preparing to welcome athletes, journalists and supporters to La Villette during the Olympic Games

Final touches are being put to this 15,000 square metre space designed to host the Blues and celebrate the medal winners. It can accommodate up to 25,000 supporters.

The events have not yet started, it is the calm before the storm on the Olympic sites. Except at Club France, headquarters of the Blues: it is here that the medalists will be celebrated during the Paris Olympic Games. This space of 15 000 square meters installed in the Parc de la Villette, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, has resembled a small anthill for several days.

Helmeted workers are busy, drills are setting up stands, cables are being pulled, accreditations are being issued under the gaze of security guards… No doubt about it: it’s time for final preparations. Moreover, as proof of the imminence of the Olympic Games, athletes are now complying with the media obligations imposed by the CNOSF, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee.

But the sound of tools indicates that there is still a lot of work to be done in the Blues’ house. These are the final finishing touches, before the big day. “All the structural work is done, everything that needs to be built is built. Now, we’re putting the finishing touches, making the final adjustments, the final brush strokes, the final screwdriver strokes…”explains Arnaud Courtier.

The very busy director of this extraordinary French club which comes to life under the Grande Halle de la Villette, takes a break and looks at the work already done: “It’s a big project, these three weeks of assembly. Well, there you have it, a lot of things that we won’t see if it’s done well when we’re operational. But yes, it’s a lot of equipment and a lot of people working,” he emphasizes.

“There are several hundred people who contributed to it. There are tons of equipment, kilometers of cables, optical fiber…”

Arnaud Courtier, director of Club France

to franceinfo

The France Club auditorium is the only place where everything is already ready. “Thank you all for being with us”we hear in the speakers. Since Monday, July 22, everyone has been finding their bearings, little by little. Starting with the French athletes: press conferences, appearances in front of the many microphones and cameras… Young Andy Timo from the French rugby 7s team does not hide his surprise: he admits to never having seen so many microphones held out at the same time.

At the Grande Halle de la Villette, some 2 500 journalists are accredited, and no fewer than 72 press conferences are planned before the start of the events. And, as the Olympics require, everything is timed. However, the very precise timing must be respected, as Julien Condon, team manager, points out: “There is a departure time from the village, an arrival time here, a start time for the conference and a specific departure time. The players have been briefed for a few days already on this whole course, so that they can visualize things before getting into the thick of it.”

THE “heart of the matter”understand: to come back with a medal around your neck, like Nedim Remilli, from the French handball team. “Of course we would love to come to the France club to have a big party! We walked 200 to 300 meters to get here and we saw how huge this club was going to be. Obviously we want to come back here, with the gold medal, and to be able to celebrate that with all the French people and all the supporters who are here!“, he hopes. Up to 25,000 French supporters are authorized under the Grande Halle, according to the gauges planned for the occasion.