Paris angers critics with plans to restrict Olympic Games traffic but says residents shouldn’t flee

By JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Stay and enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime show. That is the message organizers of the Paris Olympics are sending in an effort to reassure the French capital’s residents that security measures and traffic restrictions won’t make their lives nightmarish during the July 26-Aug. 11 event and the Paralympic Games that follow. But critics, including in the Senate, were displeased by plans to require motorists to apply online for a QR code to access traffic-restricted zones of Paris during the games. Senators complained that lawmakers had not been consulted. Nathalie Goulet, a senator from Normandy, likened the proposal to ID papers that France’s Nazi occupiers imposed in World War II.