In early May the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, the president of the Paris 2024 organising committee, Tony Estanguet, and other dignitaries officially opened a vast subterranean chamber near Austerlitz station in the south-east of the French capital.
Measuring 30m deep and 50m across, the cathedral-like receptacle, its roof held up by 20 enormous pillars, took 42 months to build, at a total cost of more than€90m. It also witnessed the accidental death of Amara Dioumassy, a construction worker.
