Paris 2024 reaches new milestone with inauguration of athletes' village

SAINT OUEN, France :The keys to the Paris 2024 athletes' village were officially handed to the Olympics organisers as President Emmanuel Macron visited the site on Thursday.

The 52-hectare village, just north of Paris, will host some 14,500 athletes and their staff before welcoming 9,000 for the Paralympics.

After the Games, the village will be transformed into an eco-friendly neighbourhood benefiting 6,000 residents and featuring two schools, a hotel, a public park, shops and offices plus planted areas for pedestrians and non-motorised vehicles.

"It will become, after the Games, a real neighbourhood for the inhabitants of (the) Seine Saint Denis (area)," Macron said.

"It is a masterpiece of what the French construction industry can do," said Nicolas Ferrand, the general director of SOLIDEO, the company in charge of delivering the Olympics infrastructure.

Ferrand handed a symbolic key of the village to Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet, officially concluding a seven-year journey since Paris was awarded the Games.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and locally elected representatives, as well as region president Valerie Pecresse and sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera, attended the inauguration.

"We are, I am, proud of the work you've done, within budget and on time," Macron told workers on site.

"Our athletes will be able to experience the Games in the best conditions and you contributed to changing the lives of the inhabitants of the area.

"You are part of an adventure that will mark our century."

Macron hailed France as a "nation of builders".

"What has been done on time and within budget as we finalise the reconstruction of Notre Dame is nothing short remarkable," he said.

Notre-Dame is set to reopen for religious services and to the