BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A scrum of disappointed tourists stared, wistfully, through the maze of metal fences lining the River Seine. Ahead of them, Notre Dame cathedral and other Parisian treasures lay, tantalisingly, out of reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have a code,\u201d said a woman from Mexico, watching others \u2013 armed with the requisite QR security code \u2013 pass, with an approving beep, through a police checkpoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further downstream, beside the Eiffel Tower, a weary couple trailing large suitcases performed a slow U-turn on a crowded pavement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cClosed. You\u2019ll have to walk around,\u201d a French gendarme had just told them, gesturing towards the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Paris prepares to unveil its unique Olympic opening ceremony \u2013 a river-based extravaganza that will see athletes on burnished barges being paraded through the heart of the French capital on Friday evening \u2013 the country\u2019s police and armed forces are laying the finishing touches to an equally unprecedented security operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are ready,\u201d declared a cheerful President Emmanuel Macron, his customary swagger seemingly undented by weeks of political turmoil prompted by his recent shock decision to dissolve the French parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The security operation \u2013 the phrase hardly does justice to the scale of it \u2013 involves the largest peacetime deployment of security forces in French history, with up to 75,000 police, soldiers and hired guards on patrol in Paris at any one time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roads and metro stations have been closed. Some 44,000 barriers have been erected. And an elaborate system of QR codes has been set up for residents and others seeking access to the river Seine and its islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have, inevitably, been teething problems and frustrations in a city that would ordinarily be teeming with unrestricted foreign tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m a little bit worried. I\u2019ve never seen it so calm. Ninety percent of clients have gone,\u201d said a waiter, Omar Benabdallah, 25, surveying a pavement\u2019s worth of empty tables on the \u00cele de la Cit\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the French authorities insist the disruption will be both brief \u2013 many of the barricades along the Seine will be removed after Friday\u2019s opening ceremony \u2013 and worthwhile, with the world treated to a spectacular show celebrating Paris\u2019s history and beauty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BBC: A scrum of disappointed tourists stared, wistfully, through the maze of metal fences lining the River Seine. Ahead of them, Notre Dame cathedral and other Parisian treasures lay, tantalisingly, out of reach. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a code,\u201d said a woman from Mexico, watching others \u2013 armed with the requisite QR security code \u2013 pass, with an approving beep, through a police checkpoint. Further downstream, beside the Eiffel Tower, a weary couple trailing large suitcases performed a slow U-turn on a crowded pavement. \u201cClosed. You\u2019ll have to walk around,\u201d a French gendarme had just told them, gesturing towards the south…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40875,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40873\/revisions\/40875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}