Parisians changed their tune by the end of the Olympics

Transcript

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Now that the Paris Summer Olympics have wrapped up, life will begin to return to normal for people in France. That means fretting about a hung Parliament, about not having a new government. And there was ample concern about the Summer Games costing too much and disrupting people's lives. But once the Olympics got underway, Parisians - not easily impressed Parisians - found it hard not to delight in the Games. Here's NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab.

FATIMA AL-KASSAB, BYLINE: At the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, crowds watched chanted as the Olympic cauldron rose into the sky at sunset each night.

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AL-KASSAB: Most of those watching were Parisians, like Julie Yun (ph). She'd been skeptical about the Games coming to her city, but she admits she got swept up by the Olympic fever.

JULIE YUN: Yeah. Initially, we were not happy about Olympics in Paris because we thought that there were going to be a lot of people. But we were just saying that, yeah, the atmosphere is really nice and really chilled. Yeah, really glad that we stayed in Paris for the Olympics.

AL-KASSAB: It's not just residents who reveled in the excitement. The local press jumped on the bandwagon, too. Here's Sylvie Kauffmann, editorial director at the Le Monde newspaper.

SYLVIE KAUFFMANN: So Le Parisien is a popular daily newspaper. It has this headline, "Paris Dazzles The World." So...

AL-KASSAB: These Olympics have put the capital's iconic sits at the center of the competition - beach volleyball at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, fencing at the Grand Palais and swimming - at least some of it - in the Seine. But it's not just the spotlight on Paris' picturesque backdrops that has impressed the locals, it's that everything seemed to work smoothly. Parisians joked the subway has never operated as well as it did during the two-plus weeks of the Games. Guillaume Lepode (ph) is one of the hundreds of subway workers who helped passengers get around the city. He says he was proud to be a part of the Olympics and proud to be French.

GUILLAUME LEPODE: There's been so many great moments and memories that we keep for ourselves and that we like to share with others.

AL-KASSAB: And these moments of joy have popped up all over Paris, from the Tuileries Gardens to the banks of the Seine and to the buzzing fan zones that have turned into open-air parties every night. In the La Villette park in the north of the city, Parisians party along a canal. Jeanvic Chapeau (ph) had initially left Paris to avoid the Games, but was so impressed by the opening ceremony, he decided to come back to take it all in.

JEANVIC CHAPEAU: After the opening ceremony, like, it was so exciting, with all that diversity, and we was like, oh, no. Let's go. Let's go again to Paris.

AL-KASSAB: Anais Gurman (ph) says the Games have cheered people up after a difficult few months of political infighting.

ANAIS GURMAN: Well, people feel grateful. Like, everyone is happy. So before that, it was not the case because of politics and that all happening.

AL-KASSAB: Whatever happens with France's hung Parliament, for Jeanvic Chapeau at the Paris fan zone, this has been a moment to enjoy.

CHAPEAU: And I hope that just after the Olympics, after the depression, the post-Olympic depression, you know, people remember that they spend two weeks among other different people, and everything is good.

AL-KASSAB: Chapu hopes people here will hold on to something of the Olympic spirit, even now that the Games are over. Fatima Al-Kassab, NPR News, Paris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.