Kiwis miss Olympic opening ceremony after French train arsons

It was the place to be — unless you were struck by transport woes affecting thousands of people in Paris ahead of today’s opening ceremony.

Andrew Schmidt and his daughter Annalize were disappointed to miss the Olympic Games opening ceremony, following transport issues plaguing France, as alleged arsonists attacked regional lines connecting Paris with the West, North, and East.

Schmidt said he and his daughter were “really quite sad watching what we missed” as they looked on from their AirBnB in Bordeaux, not from the side of the Seine as they had originally planned.

Bordeaux is a cool 598km from Paris — six hours and nine minutes by car, one hour and twenty minutes by plane and anywhere from one to nearly three hours on various trains, according to Google Maps. Unfortunately, none were an option for Schmidt.

He said he was scheduled for the 11.28am (local time) train from Bordeaux to Paris. But he awoke to an email from train company SNCF to advise there was a “significant delay” due to “fire near the tracks”.

“My daughter and I packed up and raced down to Bordeaux St Jean station, arriving two hours before our train hoping to jump an earlier (train).”

He said, already at the train station, “the queues were huge”.

After queuing for around half an hour, he “gave up on the line and went to the Games hosts who were at the station”.

Then, an announcement was broadcast that “the train line to Paris wasn’t working due to saboteurs… The host then said that all trains were canceled and no trains would make it to Paris today.”

He and Annalize, 15, went “straight to the web” to seek a way to Paris.

“Cars gone; flights gone; buses gone; the TGV (French rail network) takes two hours, cars six hours, bus eight hours, (there were) no options, so we accepted defeat and booked a train for tomorrow, same time. “

He then received confirmation that his newly booked train has been cancelled. They managed to book a car for later in the day, but the cancellation meant they would also be missing out on the men’s sevens final.

Schmidt said they paid around 1080 euros, or NZD$2000 for entrance to the opening ceremony and the men’s sevens game. He managed to recoup some of the money after selling one of the men’s sevens tickets, but has needed to fork out NZD$600 for a rental car.

Schmidt said he feels “very unlucky”.

“We were very unlucky as the longest affected line meant we (would spend) two hours on the train but six hours by driving, and earlier trains learned they were not going, so booked the cars, flights and buses.”

“Bugger!”

Kiwis, friends and family watch from Paris

Those more fortunate were the friends and family already in Paris to support the Olympic team.

1News reporter Henry McMullan joined crowds at BLACKSHEEP SOCIETY, a pub which describes itself as “an international, laid back neighborhood bar – with a touch of New Zealand”.

McMullan spoke to avid Olympic fans, with one Aussie punter quipping: “We love the Kiwis — it’s the eight state of Australia”.

The beer was flowing, nachos cooking and excitement seemed to be on tap. Over at New Zealand house, family members of our competing Olympians said they were “pleased and proud” to be in Paris.

“The number of supporters reflect the support given to the Olympic team… it’s tremendous,” hockey player Sean Findlay’s grandfather Harry Findlay said.

“We look forward to many more gold (medal)s.”

The family of rugby sevens star Andrew Knewstubb said it was “amazing” to be in Paris to celebrate their lad and the other athletes.

“We were booked to go to Tokyo, but of course there were no spectators,” Knewstubb’s mum said, of the Covid-impacted Games.

She said despite the heartbreaking loss to South Africa on Friday, part of the joy was seeing Knewstubb back in action following his two ACL injuries in 2022 and 2023.

If you could make it, Paris really was the place to be.