‘CULTURAL HERITAGE’ | A pedestrian walks along a row of bookstalls on the banks of the river Seine in Paris. (REUTERS)
PARIS — Booksellers along the river Seine say the Olympics threaten to erase a symbol of Paris, after they were told by local authorities to remove their stalls for the Summer Games opening ceremony in 2024 for security reasons.
Around 570 of the famous old stalls that line the river in the French capital need to be dismantled and moved, or almost 60 percent of the riverside booksellers, according to city authorities.
“People come to see us like they come to see the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, [but] they want to hide us during a ceremony that is supposed to represent Paris,” said Jerome Callais, president of the Paris booksellers association.
But Paris police have told the booksellers their stalls are within the perimeter of protection and need to be removed for “obvious security reasons.”
Olympics organizers expect at least 600,000 spectators as delegations sail along the Seine in the opening ceremony.
Albert Abid, a bookseller of 10 years, says his century-old stall could be damaged if it were to be dismantled.
Paris authorities said they had met with the booksellers earlier this month and offered to pay for the costs of removing the stalls and any repair work in the event of damage.
“This renovation is part of the Games’ heritage and will help support the application to have the Seine booksellers recognized as intangible cultural heritage by Unesco,” they said in a statement.