“In Paris, anything could happen,” says Fred Sirieix, laughing, and it is soon clear that he is no longer talking about diving, his Olympic-medal winning daughter Andrea or indeed his work for the BBC, but an ongoing party among fans.
“There is the city of love… this is sexy Paris!” he exclaims. “People will meet, they will kiss, they will make love, people will have affairs, nobody will know about it! You are in France. It’s going to be fun, man. And we are going to eat super well.”
To be clear, Sirieix is also not referring to the much maligned athletes’ restaurant in the Olympic Village but the gastronomic competition on every corner of the city which, in his expert opinion, is akin to an Olympic event in its own right. The star of First Dates and Million Pound Menu also has some advice for British fans who have another five days to visit the French capital before the Games end.
“Paris is an amusement park — it’s a pleasure of the senses,” says Sirieix, who has been providing dispatches as part of the BBC’s Olympic coverage between watching his 19-year-old daughter compete. “You just have to walk down the street, be a bit savvy, you can clock a good restaurant from the outside, see the menu, you can maybe see the food on the plates, very quickly you can put two and two together and see if it’s a good place. Rather than follow guides, go randomly in the street. More often than not you will have a good meal and meet interesting people. I do that all the time. It’s fun — you never know where the conversation is going to take you.”
With Team GB fans outnumbering everyone in Paris except for the French themselves, Sirieix, who has lived in Britain since he was 20, also hopes that this can be a moment to celebrate and strengthen the Anglo-French axis. He cites some of the shared history, such as how the modern Olympic Games were inspired by Pierre Coubertin’s visit to meet William Penny Brooks in Shropshire, and how Concorde was built by manufacturers from Great Britain and France.
Perfect bedfellows
“There is this collaborative spirit and sense of partnership,” he says. “We did the Concorde. When I grew up [in Limoges], the Concorde was just French. For the Brits, it was just Brits, but actually it was 50-50.
“There is so much that has come from this Franco-British collaboration. There is so much inspiration that has come from both countries and I think the Olympics is a great example of that; of how we managed to partner, do something together and get inspired by each other.
“I’ve been here [Britain] 32 years. I feel very British even though I am not officially British. Obviously, I am very French — my children keep reminding me of this: ‘Daddy, why do you speak like that?’ It is lovely to share that French perspective to my fellow Brits in a way that people can understand and get behind the story. I can’t help but think of London 2012, how it brought the country together, the sense of pride and belonging that everybody felt. The French want to do the same. I was in tears at the [London] Opening Ceremony. I‘m cheering on Team GB and France.”
And, while that has mostly been a relaxing experience, he admits that watching his daughter Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix dive produces a whole kaleidoscope of emotion.