PARIS – The Louvre Museum in Paris announced on April 23 that it planned to organise yoga and sport sessions in its famed galleries as part of a city-wide cultural programme ahead of the Olympics.
The world’s biggest museum is to offer visitors the chance to take part in dance, yoga and workout sessions with instructors and coaches while gazing upon its world-renowned paintings and sculptures.
The announcement was one of several aimed at whipping up Olympic enthusiasm ahead of the start of the Games in Paris on July 26.
“The Louvre is physically in the centre of Paris. It will be physically at the centre of the Olympic Games,” museum chief Laurence des Cars said.
Details of the special sessions and the museum’s new Olympics-themed exhibition are available on its website.
The Games’ opening ceremony is set to take place on the River Seine which runs past the Louvre. A temporary stadium to host the skateboarding and breakdancing is being built at the nearby Place de la Concorde. The Olympic flame is also set to burn in the neighbouring Tuileries Garden.
Four other art destinations – including the Musee d’Orsay, the home of impressionist masterpieces – are also set to put on Olympic-related sports or cultural activities.
Also on April 23, the Paris City Hall unveiled its plans for public sports facilities, concerts and open-air fan areas around the City of Light for the duration of the Olympics and Paralympics.
A total of 26 fan zones will be created around the capital, in addition to two special celebration areas in central and north-eastern Paris where medal winners will be encouraged to greet the public.
“For the first time in the history of the Games, the host city is aiming to create a people’s Games where Olympic enthusiasm can be shared at the event sites but also outside of the stadiums, in the heart of the city, in each district,” the mayor’s office said.
An Olympic transport mobile phone app was also made available for the first time by the regional transport authority. Visitors to Paris will be encouraged to use the Transport Public Paris 2024 app, which will guide them to Olympic destinations using real-time information on traffic and user numbers.
But there were some minor issues in the build-up to the Games. Safety inspectors have halted some of the construction work on stands in Versailles for the equestrian events as there is a risk of employees falling. French newspaper L’Equipe quoted inspectors saying there was a serious and imminent danger of workers tumbling from up to 20 metres due to a lack of necessary safety devices.
But GL events, the builder of the stands, claims the works have not been halted but merely reorganised, adding that the deadline would be met.
“These temporary stoppages concerned only certain operations, allowing work to continue without impacting on the Paris 2024 assembly schedule,” the Games’ organisers added. AFP, REUTERS
