Forget gold medals; it’s all about gold roast.
Paris Prepares for the Olympics
On the centenary of the last, Paris is once again preparing to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Crayon-coloured statues of Milo’s Venus holding sports gear like surfboards and javelins flank the Assemblée Nationale, the five Olympic rings adorn the Trocadero, and the River Seine has undergone a deep clean in the hope that athletes will be returning home with shiny medals rather than typhoid.
The question on everyone’s lips though… if Paris can muddle together to host the largest sporting event on the planet, why is it impossible to get a decent cup of coffee?
I’m joking, of course. The question might well be, why can a cup of coffee cost up to €8 here, but the minimum hourly wage is only €11,65? Or, why is the Metro fare set to double, for locals as well as tourists, between July and September? Or indeed, why are many students being evicted from their accommodation early so that landlords can rent to tourists, and why has France’s homelessness rate more than doubled since 2012, when London hosted the games? Studies by the Fondation Abbé Pierre found that almost 300,000 people were sleeping rough, compared to 143,000 in 2012, with increasing numbers of women and children contributing to that statistic.
The Hidden Cost of Paris's Olympic Glory
During the Olympics, Paris’s city tax (charged by all hotels on a sliding scale according to their price bracket) is set to triple. Usually, this tax is funnelled straight into the tourism industry, but with three times the profit set to be reaped, why shouldn’t it be used to fund alternative accommodation for those in need?
There’s a side of Paris that we won’t see represented on TV screens. The Eiffel Tower will become a backdrop for inner-city beach volleyball, the gleaming golden domes of Invalides will be broadcast around the world, but no provisions have been made for Paris’s rough sleepers during the Games, other than to shunt them onto other areas. Out of sight, out of mind. Even riding the Metro or seeking shelter in a subway station will cost them double. Concrete action from Paris 2024 appears non-existent.
“As an organising committee, we are doing everything possible to ensure that the relevant authorities offer tangible solutions to people whose already difficult circumstances are being impacted in places where the event will be staged,” said a spokesperson for Paris 2024.
“Since September 2023, the regional prefecture, police prefecture, regional health authority, City of Paris, the Paris emergency social services and charities have been working together to ensure continued support for people without shelter who might be impacted by the installation of temporary venues for the Games.”
Change Please: Brewing Hope & Revitalising Paris's Coffee Culture
I first met the young entrepreneurs behind Paris’s Change Please in 2021. A team of just three, they’d been inspired by Change Please London, a charity that trains people without housing in barista skills to help get them off the street and back on their feet. Change Please London trains some 200 people annually, but in 2021, the Parisian counterparts were just about to take on their first trainee.
Now, two and a half years later, 20 people have been through their seven-month training programme and found full-time employment at the end. One of their protegees has even gone on to manage a café. Change Please Paris is keen to prioritise those most vulnerable, particularly single mothers and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Of the 20 baristas they’ve trained to date, 14 are female or transgender.
The WeWork in Paris’s 9th arrondissement, where I meet Laurence Mainaud, Change Please’s marketing and impact director, has the grandeur of a department store and an atrium-like interior like a bank. I’m served my coffee by a middle-aged man named Gabriel, whose wide smile makes his eyes crinkle. He greets customers with the ease of someone who was born to be in hospitality. The crema on my coffee is so thick it looks as though I could slice it with a knife, and the coffee is rich, strong and thoroughly delicious.
“I’ve rediscovered coffee since following this programme,” says Gabriel. “It’s so much more than the coffee you get in a brasserie.”
Other Socially Responsible Coffee Initiatives
In 2010 the New York Times famously annihilated Paris’s coffee scene, asking ‘why does it suck so bad?’. It’s not for want of quantity; Paris has over 3,000 cafés. In 2022, coffee in Paris made headlines again for all the wrong reasons. as Tweets went viral. “I’m in Paris and I ordered an oat milk latte and the waiter said no,” Tweeted Andy Haynes to 188,000 likes, and many commenters cited similar experiences.
I scan the menu — flat whites are on there, and chai lattes, mocha matcha and plant milk.
“Paris’s coffee scene has improved, but there’s a long way to go,” says Mainaud, who spent several years living in London. “Often, particularly in brasseries, you’ll hear the [coffee] machine screaming, and your coffee arrives burnt. Loads of places don’t seem to be able to make coffee with milk!”
Change Please isn’t the only company tackling Paris’s coffee crisis and social problems at once. Wake Up Café runs reintegration programmes for ex-convicts, who learn barista skills and run a barge-boat café-restaurant, Bateau Thalassa, in Paris 15ème. Café Joyeux hires only staff members with physical and/or mental disabilities and has six different sites in Paris. That’s a lot of places to enjoy a decent cup of coffee and make a difference while you’re about it.
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Anna Richards
Anna is an award-winning travel and outdoor writer living in Lyon, France. Drawn by mountains and cheese, she spends as much time as possible in the former and eats far too much of the latter. She is the author of Paddling France for Bradt Guides.