Report and photos by Florian Guillemin.
Since 20 August 2018, the Greece has officially been released from its trusteeship by theEuropean Union after eight years of austerity plans. So, in theory, the Greek economy is back in the black. But only in theory, because from the taxi driver to the small shopkeeper - obviously used to Europeans passing through to ask about their convalescence - the diagnosis is the same: the ratio between wages, taxes and the cost of living is making everyday life very difficult. Incidentally, Athens still bears the scars of the economic downturn, and you regularly come across ruins that are anything but ancient, bearing witness to a wound that is still open.
Le Syntagma business district illustrates the situation in Athens, and indeed in Greece as a whole. Take, for example, the Hotel Esperia, a former leading business address, now transformed into an alternative wasteland whose future remains uncertain. A few metres away are the Greek central bank and stock exchange, whose cold, massive buildings seem to have lost their memory. Nevertheless, this urban landscape has been turned upside down, and the economic balance is still very precarious, giving rise to opportunities that are being seized by foreign companies, as well as by some of the local fortunes that have escaped the crisis.
In 2017, the foreign direct investment (FDI) even grew by more than 30 %, exceeding four billion dollars and returning to pre-2008 levels. Taking advantage of the return of business travellersthe major hotel chains return to AthensThe city's major projects are back on track. The symbol of the Athenian renaissance was inaugurated in 2016, in the south-west of the capital. Visit Stavros Niarchos Foundation cultural centresigned Renzo PianoThe Opera House and the National Library come together in a major architectural totem. After all, to revive the belief and growth machine, why not bank on the Athenian fundamentals?
GETTING THEREThere is no shortage of options for getting to Athens from France, both in terms of airlines and airports served. From Paris CDG, Air France flies to the Greek capital every day - for an average flight time of 3 hours 15 minutes - and operates up to four flights a day during the summer. Based at Orlyits subsidiary Transavia also flies daily to Athens. EasyJet also connects Athens with the airport to the south of Paris, but the flight schedule - three weekly flights - is limited to the summer season. For its part, Aegan Airlines offers three daily rotations from Paris CDG, but Aegan Airlines stands out above all for its coverage of France. The Greek airline is present all year round at six regional airports (BordeauxToulouse, Marseille, Nice, Lyon, and Basel Mulhouse), bringing business travellers from all over France to Athens. |
Athens relaunches its port in Piraeus |
According to the Athenians, all you have to do to gauge the country's situation is look at the Piraeus. At selling its port to China's Cosco In 2016, as part of the privatisation programmes imposed by the crisis, Athens seemed to be selling its soul, and above all its first-rate economic machine. Three years on, the Piraeus district is enjoying a new lease of life. After the tramway In early 2019, the metro should be launched in 2021 to link the city's two gateways: the port and its airport. Paradoxically, this modernisation plan should spare the neighbourhood's real scoria, the Piraeus Trade CenterIts design in the 1970s proved so dangerous that it cannot be occupied or even destroyed.
