Serena Williams has criticised a Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris, alleging that she was not allowed to enter with her children. The Olympian said she and her family were not permitted to enter The Peninsula’s rooftop restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, in a post published on X (formerly Twitter). Ms Williams wrote in the post that she had never been refused entry while her family was there.

“Yikes @peninsulaparis I’ve been denied access to the rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places but never with my kids. Always a first. #Olympic2024,” she said on the microblogging website.

Yikes @peninsulaparis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places but never with my kids. Always a first. #Olympic2024pic.twitter.com/lEGJR5WoEn

— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) August 5, 2024

Maxime Mannevy, a staff member at the Peninsula’s rooftop restaurant, told Variety that Ms Williams appeared “unrecognizable” when she arrived pushing a stroller alongside another lady. “When she came there were only two tables available and they had been reserved by clients of the hotel,” she said, adding that she was not working when Ms Williams visited the restaurant.

“My colleague didn’t recognize her and feels terrible, but he told her what he would have told any other client, which is to wait downstairs in the bar for a table to become available. That was absolutely nothing personal.”

The restaurant reacted to the Grand Slam champion’s claim, with employees reiterating their reasons for turning away Ms Williams and her children from a table. “In response to Ms Williams’ tweet, for whom we have the utmost admiration and respect, as we do for all our esteemed guests, we reiterate our deepest apologies that we were not able to offer her a table at our rooftop bar when she arrived with her family and without a reservation,” the hotel said in a statement to the New York Post.

They said, “We do always try to make space for walk-in guests but sometimes this is not possible.”

“On August 5th, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked, and the only unoccupied tables at that time belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was also fully reserved. As an alternative, Ms Williams was offered an outside table downstairs at the hotel’s La Terrasse Kléber. We have always been honored to welcome you and will always be to welcome you again,” the statement added.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion initially came to Paris in late July, just in time for the “unforgettable” Olympic opening ceremony, which she attended as a torch bearer. Along with fellow tennis champion Rafael Nadal, nine-time medallist Carl Lewis, French greats Zinedine Zidane, Teddy Riner, Marie-Jose Perec, and Tony Parker, Ms Williams joined a long tradition of athletes carrying the torch. She has also won four Olympic gold medals over the course of her career.

Washington:

Donald Trump on Monday called the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris a “disgrace,” after its creators came under fire for what some said was a show gone too far.

“I’m very open-minded but I thought what they did was a disgrace,” Trump told Fox News.

His comments followed condemnation from Catholic groups and French bishops of a ceremony scene involving dancers, drag queens and a DJ in poses that appeared to recall depictions of the Last Supper, although creators have said it was not meant to represent the religious setting.

The sequence drew international criticism from Christian groups and far-right politicians on social media.

When asked by host Laura Ingraham what he would do if he’s reelected president in time for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Trump replied: “We won’t be having a ‘Last Supper’ as portrayed the way they portrayed it last night.”

Thomas Jolly, the director of the opening ceremony, later responded to criticism by saying he intended for the production to “reconcile” and “repair.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

London:

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer changed his travel plans to get to the Olympics on Friday after Eurostar trains were disrupted due to sabotage attacks against French rail networks, Downing Street said.

Starmer was meant to be travelling on the cross-Channel rail service from London to Paris for the Olympics opening ceremony, in his first visit to France since being elected earlier this month.

But a spokeswoman said he flew instead due to the delays and cancellations.

France is welcoming dozens of heads of state and government and royalty for the Olympics that begin with a dazzling ceremony on the river Seine on Friday.

Just hours before the ceremony, arson attacks threw France’s high-speed rail network into chaos affecting tens of thousands of passengers, in what officials called premeditated acts of “sabotage”.

One in four Eurostar trains were cancelled, the company said, with the disruption set to continue over the weekend.

Beyond the cancellations, Eurostar trains departing and arriving in Paris will run on regular lines rather than high-speed routes.

That would add an extra 90 minutes onto a Paris-London trip that usually takes around two hours and 20 minutes, Eurostar said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)