Paris 2024 Olympic Games: summer terraces can open until midnight

The summer terraces, which will return in two weeks, will be able to stay open until midnight and no longer 10 p.m. during the Olympic Games (July 26 to August 11) and Paralympic Games in Paris, announced Anne Hidalgo, mayor. from Paris, Friday evening on Instagram (see below), after receiving professionals from the sector to present them with the City medal. A proposal that delights restaurateurs. “The idea is for this period to be a celebration. Parisians and visitors to the Olympic Games will be better off in our establishments than anywhere on the quays and lawns of the capital,” says Franck Delvau, president of Umih (Union of Hospitality Trades and Industries) Île-de-France. -France, quoted by Le Parisien.

This exemption, which “will be provided for within the framework of an order derogating from the current regulations”, will be valid from July 1 to September 8, the date of the end of the Paralympic Games. Frédéric Hocquard, deputy for nightlife at Paris town hall, also indicated that Parisian bars which wished could ask to exceptionally open all night, on the four evenings of the opening and closing ceremonies, on the model of July 14 or the LGBT pride march.

If restaurateurs are satisfied, this is much less the case for local residents who fear slippage. The “Right to Sleep” collective denounces a “arm of honor” on the part of the town hall. “We are absolutely disgusted by the contempt of the municipality. They chose World Sleep Day (Friday March 15, Editor's note) to announce to us that they were going to extend the hours of the summer terraces,” says an indignant member of the collective who fears a continuation of the midnight closure. In 2023, summer terraces, set up on sidewalks or parking spaces from April 1 to October 31 of each year, have accumulated 13,650 fines, according to Paris town hall, compared to just over 15,000 in 2022. “Parisian terraces are part of the charm of the capital, I think we can admit a few small slip-ups,” retorts Franck Trouet, general delegate of the Ile-de-France branch of the National Group of Independents in the Hotel and Restaurant Industry.

As a reminder, in the event of noise pollution, a restaurant risks a fixed fine of 68 euros and 135 euros for “lack of maintenance or irregularities”, according to Paris town hall. Heavier administrative sanctions are also planned: formal notice to dismantle the terraces, fines of 500 euros and dismantling at the expense of the operators which can go as far as an official request for the restaurant to close.