Padraig Denihan woke up on Wednesday morning with no intention of being in Paris for the Olympic Games, but several hours later he found himself booking flights to France. The following day he was among a stream of Irish fans walking to the Stade de France to watch Ireland take on New Zealand in the Rugby Sevens competition.
His daughter, Ciara Denihan, had bought two tickets back in February, and suddenly one was going spare at the last minute. “My friend dropped out so my Dad actually booked the trip yesterday and came over from Dublin this morning,” she says.
Ms Denihan, who works for a law firm in Brussels, got the bus down to Paris on Thursday. “We literally just got here,” she says.
Her father says the decision to travel over for the Olympics was a “spur of the moment” thing, but flights were reasonable.
For some making the journey among the sea of French fans, the walk down to the Stade de France brought back painful memories.
Patrick O’Riordan, from Co Cork, was at the Rugby World Cup quarter final here last year when New Zealand broke Irish hearts. He was hoping for the Sevens team to break the “curse” this week.
The rugby, which kicked off earlier this week, had been “brilliant craic”, despite some long queues getting into the stadium the day before, he says. “Last time [the Olympics] was in London we were kind of annoyed that we didn’t go over because it was so close, so this year we made a point to try to get here,” he says.
David Jameson and Joanna Minnis, a young couple from Belfast, booked the Sevens pool tickets not knowing what teams would be playing. “We’re lucky with our tickets that we got ones that Ireland are playing, you book it and hope for the best. Ireland playing New Zealand? Happy days,” he says.
One 21-year-old Irish-American student living in Paris, was heading to the match with a French friend who had secured tickets a year and a half ago. The young man asked only to be named as Séamas, as he was supposed to be in work.
The build up to the Olympics had been dominated by people in Paris giving out about construction works and the costs, according to Séamas. He says he hoped the spectacle of the opening ceremony would lift the city’s enthusiasm for the event.
A spokesman for the Olympics said overall 10,000 people had bought tickets from Ireland, but the number of Irish in town over the coming weeks is expected to be significantly higher than that.
The centre of Paris along the Seine is on lockdown before the opening ceremony on Friday evening, where athletes will travel down the river on scores of boats and floats.
As a result there is a huge security presence, with a five minute stroll taking you past rows of Gendarmerie vans, troops of French soldiers and several checkpoints. Inside the restricted zone workers were putting the final touches on spectator stands, as police with sniffer dogs swept the area.
A normally bustling square outside the Louvre Museum was practically deserted on Thursday. Many businesses have been griping that the extent of the security cordon in place has driven people from the centre of Paris.
Matheo Gauthier (21), who works in one nearby cafe, says footfall was exceptionally low, particularly as many Parisians had left the city to avoid the chaos the Games may bring. “It is a bit difficult because of the restrictions, but I think it is a good thing, it is always nice to have the Olympics,” he says. After the opening ceremony the hope was that security restrictions could be eased to “free Paris”, he says.
