Rats in Paris are all but a novelty act, as the splendid City of Light, which doesn’t always stand out for cleanliness, suffered the devastating bubonic plague in the 14th century, turned to these often unpleasant rodents for nourishment in times of famine and even celebrated cartoon characters like the popular Ratatouille in the animated movie from 2007 that bares his name.

Though they are more than an unwelcome sight for tourists. Residents and Olympic organisers looking to set a postcard-worthy image of the French Capital when the spotlight shines the brightest come Friday, from the opening ceremony all throughout the Summer Games.

Yet, they are still there, quite visible and not particularly shy about their daily business. As city officials push to improve Paris’ reputation worldwide and advocate for a cleaner, more eco-friendly metropolis that avoids animal mistreatment when possible, the municipality rolled out an integrated rodent control plan in 2017, that involved combining direct control (chemical and/or mechanical) with measures to protect the pests' environment.

Direct control using rat poison (protected in boxes that make it inaccessible to non-target species and humans) and environmentally friendly traps, were implemented on infested sites to reduce the rat population and the city carries out more than 7,000 operations yearly aimed at limiting the presence of rodents on public property.

However, as the Games near and the not-so-little scurriers seem to keep popping up, concerns increase among those that worry about possible heat waves in August pushing rodents out from the underworld and into the streets, looking for food. The official message, however, is one of calmness and confidence in the city’s sanitation efforts. "All of the Olympic sites and celebration areas were analysed (for rats) before the Games," deputy mayor Anne-Claire Boux, who is responsible for public health, told AFP in an interview last week.

Targeted actions were also carried out in sewers to regulate rat populations and the mayor's rodent specialists also worked to close exit points from the sewers around the sites, while owners are responsible for private gardens, courtyards, cellars and buildings, according to the Departmental Health Regulations. 

"Where there were areas with lots of rats we put traps in place ahead of the Games," Boux detailed, adding that both mechanical rat-traps and chemical solutions were used to reduce troublesome populations.

Parisians love to eat outdoors in terraces, especially during the summertime, as evidenced by the "Terrace de Jeux" esplanade set by organisers next to the "Hotel de Ville" (City Hall).  Picnics in gardens like La Place des Vosges or along the Seine are common as well, which make for picturesque paintings but tend to welcome quite a few of Ratatouille’s distant cousins for leftover feasts. 

The park behind the Eiffel Tower, where the beach volleyball is set to take place, and the Louvre gardens, where the Olympic cauldron is set to burn are other popular spots. "Ultimately, no one should aim to exterminate Paris's rats, and they're useful in maintaining the sewers. The point is that they should stay in the sewers," Boux stated.

As with police forces heavily patrolling the vast metropolis in order to ensure a safe and secure sporting event, Paris has deployed 7,500-strong cleaning and collection teams and so far avoided any union strike that would have been devastating if applied during Games, as last year’s three-week protest led to an estimated 10,000 tonnes of garbage piled up in the streets. Bonuses of up to €1,900 ($2,060) for working through the Olympic period have been agreed to while private contractors are also set to contribute.

"I'm not at all worried (about rats)," said Antine Guillou, deputy mayor in charge of waste. "On the contrary, the Games will help us show definitively that this idea that you run into lots of rats in Paris is false. There are some, we deal with them, but they're not an issue specific to Paris nor on the scale that is sometimes suggested in a caricatural way."

Animated are not, the rodents are no joke for many residents who have long derided officials for finally coming up with the grand idea to provide new and improved, supposedly rat-proof garbage bins. "The most important thing is that the bins are sealed and closed," mayor Anne Hidalgo pointed out recently.

More importantly for many it seems, is that such and other rodents keep themselves to the shadows in the City of Light; if not for the foreseeable future, at least for the upcoming weeks.