Georges-Valbon Park, surprise star of the Paris Games in Seine-Saint-Denis

And the enchanted parenthesis closed. The para marathon events set off on Sunday morning, September 8, from the Georges-Valbon departmental park in Seine-Saint-Denis, a few hours before the Paralympic closing ceremony marked the end of the Paris 2024 Games (JOP). Like a lovely farewell to this 410-hectare green corner, classified Natura 2000, established in the middle of a department more often synonymous with tarmac, which was a magnificent party venue from July 26 to September 8.

From this sequence, the park which spreads over five municipalities (Dugny, Garges-les-Gonesses, La Courneuve, Saint-Denis and Stains) emerges bigger, better known, more embellished. To the point of coming to cast a little shadow on the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, emblematic place of the Olympic Games in the “9-3” and beyond? “The park embodied something else. A place with no entrance fee, initially intended for us, the locals, and which everyone was able to make their own.”observes Mariame Bathily, resident of the city of 4000 whose towers lick the south of the public garden. The ” We “ has expanded considerably over the course of a summer. Mariame has met English and Canadian tourists there, “friendly, without preconceptions, a rare mix that is bound to do good”relate-t-elle.

The department had seen things on a grand scale by installing inside this park, created in 1970, an eight-hectare site for celebrating the Olympic and Paralympic Games that could accommodate up to 10,000 people. All for 4 million euros. Giant screens placed on the lake to follow the events, concert stage, food trucks, fireworks, 80-meter panoramic tower allowing you to gain height… This astonishing medley took on the air of a Fête de Humanity – especially when the Algerian singer Soolking came to unleash the crowds –, of a funfair with a taste of candy floss, of a MJC celebrating sport as much as art.

A “queue leu leu” of optimists

There we came across, in turn, a double dutch workshop (a street art of rope jumping), the boxer Sofiane Oumiha, silver medalist at the Olympic Games, a storyteller captivating children in the shade of the tall trees, a swimming simulator attracting pre-teens, a “queue leu leu” of optimists on the lake, tabla percussionists, beach volleyball courts that were all the rage even among the police…

“They even took pictures of themselves with the sheep.”jokes Julie Lou Dubreuilh, a shepherdess from the Clinamen association watching over a flock of thirty sheep and living in the departmental house located in the west of the park. A “sheep union”as she nicknamed him, whose unexpected presence first surprised the officers stationed in large numbers at Valbon, from the mounted police to the anti-crime squad. “The climate was calm, the people were happy.”summarizes the breeder.

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