In a blue light reflected by a silver ceiling, visitors wander fully clothed at the bottom of a swimming pool… Without getting wet, because this pool is only a reconstruction that occupies one of the rooms of the Pavillon Gabriel, invested by EDF for the duration of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Supplier of renewable electricity to the Paris 2024 Games, the company created this exhibition space of more than 1000 square meters to highlight its involvement in the Olympic Games and sport.
A “fun and immersive” visit
The viewer is greeted by diagrams and texts presenting EDF’s activities and its partnership with Paris 2024, without much originality. Then he enters a dark room, with walls covered with pictograms representing Olympic sports. Silence falls, and the walls light up with blue waves, rotating wind turbines and other motifs associated with renewable energies described by a voice-over.
The rest of the tour will especially highlight the impressive reproduction of a swimming pool: on the ceiling, lines of water punctuate a silver surface, as if you were at the bottom of a swimming pool. In this room, young and old can take a canoe-kayak ride in virtual reality and compete in a swimming race.
The swimming pool is followed by an athletics track, where a wheelchair race is offered. This is an opportunity for Marie-Amélie Le Fur, a disabled athlete supported by EDF and an employee of the group, to recall her company’s commitment to the inclusion of people with disabilities: “For example, EDF brings Paralympic champions into schools to talk about their careers. Since 2016, more than 10,000 students have been made aware of this.”she says happily.
Ecological Games
The exhibition ends with a room on EDF’s concrete commitment to the Paris 2024 Games. Map of the eight power plants that will supply the Games with renewable electricity, model of the solar panels installed by the group at the Saint-Denis aquatic center… Everything is done to emphasize EDF’s involvement in the organization of the Olympic Games that aim to halve CO2 emissions compared to the London Games in 2012. And the Pavilion itself intends to remain consistent with this ecological requirement: “Here, everything is recyclable or reusable”assures Pierre Viriot, director of internal brand and image communications and of the Paris 2024 project at EDF.
At the bottom of the Champs Élysées, this exhibition space is located a few hundred meters from the official Games store and the Olympic event sites of the Grand Palais and the Place de la Concorde. Despite this neighborhood that also aims to be attractive, the energy company wants to attract many visitors to its Pavilion, capable of welcoming around 100,000 people by September 8.
EDF Pavilion5 avenue Gabriel (75008 Paris), open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Friday July 12 to Sunday August 11 and from Saturday August 24 to Sunday September 8, 2024. Free entry upon reservation.
Marie-Amélie Le Fur, EDF employee and nine-time Paralympic Games medalist
6.14 metres: that is the length of the line that marks the world record in the long jump of Marie-Amélie Le Fur, in a corridor of the EDF Pavilion. “It will probably be beaten soon”, comments the disabled athlete with a smile. “And that’s good, because world records are made to be broken!”. Having had her left leg amputated following a scooter accident in 2004, she gave up her vocation as a firefighter and took up athletics.
A silver medalist at the Beijing Paralympic Games (2008), she joined “Team EDF” in 2011, bringing together athletes supported by the company. Two years later, she was hired by the group at the Saint-Laurent des Eaux nuclear power plant. “During my sports career, this job helped me better manage pressure and gave me financial security,” says the athlete. Holder of two world records, in the long jump and the 400 meters, she ended her career at the Tokyo Games (2021). But she continued her commitment as president of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee, which she held in 2018, while keeping her job at EDF.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
