From the Olympic Village to the Emmaüs centres, the second life of athletes’ furniture

Trucks, semi-trailers, pallet trucks: Friday morning on rue Ampère, in the heart of the Olympic village, in the hubbub of engines, horns and other sound warning devices, all kinds of vehicles come and go in a well-oiled crisscrossing.

The objective is twofold: to empty the rooms of their furniture before the developers redevelop them to make them into housing by mid-2025 on the one hand, and to sort and redistribute what can be, particularly to Emmaüs centres, on the other.

"There are about thirty of us per team, and we've been building about two buildings a day since the end of August," explains Saïd Alfayad, 24, who arrived on the site at the end of August, at the entrance to a room.

Logistic challenge

All day long, Saïd Alfayad and his colleagues bring down from the floors the "bedside tables, the pouffes, the wardrobes, the sofa...", the young man lists, "and then downstairs, there is a team that +palletizes+ (loads the furniture onto pallets, Editor's note)".

Each building has "about 180 rooms," according to Laurent Michaud, director of the Olympic village.

Once at the bottom of the buildings, the furniture is sent to the warehouse, a huge white hangar under which thousands of pieces of furniture pass through, located opposite the site's now deserted bus station.

Sofas with sofas, tables with tables: "we count, we sort, we check if there is any breakage, then we send them back," explains Amine Aït Ammar, 20, on the site for several weeks, who describes an "intense" mission.

In total, 54.000 pieces of furniture, 9.000 mattresses and 11.000 pillows are collected on the site to be sent to Emmaüs centres, according to the French shipping giant CMA CGM, whose foundation has mobilised more than 400 trucks to ensure their transport.

The flow is continuous, with 40 trucks loaded every day, until October 30, when the keys to the various homes must be handed over to the developers. Ultimately, 6.000 new residents should take up residence from 2025, with the Olympic Village being one of the spearheads of the real estate legacy of Paris 2024.

"Historical value"

"The deadline is very short," comments Laurent Michaud, according to whom it is a real "logistical challenge". On Friday, the Olympic village was already half dismantled.

At the other end of the supply chain, the furniture and bedding that occupied the athletes' rooms are stored in two different centers: the first in Yonne, the second in Seine-et-Marne.

But this is only temporary: in the end, all this furniture must benefit beneficiaries of Emmaüs Défi, a branch of the charity reserved for people in rehabilitation, who will be able to find them in one of the 112 Emmaüs centres.

"For us, this represents one to two years of donations," rejoices Gwendoline Lafarge, Olympic project manager for the association.

On Rue Riquet, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, one of the five branches of Emmaüs Défi already has a show apartment equipped with Olympic furniture, "everything you need to equip an apartment," summarizes Amélie Desprez, from Emmaüs Défi.

On around thirty square metres, 12 furniture items and 3 bedding items are on display: the mattress costs 30 euros, the sofa 80, the mirror and shelves sell for 15 euros.

Marina Klimashina, 51, a saleswoman in a large Parisian retailer, came on Friday morning to get equipped. "They are low prices, the items are almost new," she explains, present for her third visit to the show apartment, after her social worker wrote to Emmaüs.

"Having Olympic items has historical value," says Marina Klimashina, who had never "thought about the possibility of having something from the Olympics, because the Olympics are a global event." "Maybe an athlete sat there to write an email to his mother, it's impressive," she says, pointing to the armchair on display.