Parisians and I cherish our criticisms of the Olympics – yet may soon find delight in them instead, suggests Alexander Hurst.

If I were a city, I almost certainly would not want to host the Olympics. However, my summer contemplation led me to put up my Paris apartment on Airbnb at an exorbitant price and leave the city until friends from the US persuaded me otherwise - for the duration of the Games. As the opening ceremony looms closer, I wonder if perhaps my initial pessimism was misplaced.

Last weekend, standing along Canal Saint-Martin as the Olympic flame passed by, a sense of excitement finally crept into me. This begs the question: are other Parisians feeling this transformation taking place? Throughout the year, there have been numerous grumbles about potential disruptions to daily life and concerns regarding logistics – will the Seine be sufficiently clean? Can the transport infrastructure hold up? Will a dense city already bustling with tourists during regular summer months become even more congested due to the arrival of an influx of people for the Games? And perhaps more soberly, is it possible that the Games might proceed without any security incidents?

Whether it's tempered pessimism or tempered optimism, at this juncture two weeks before the games commence, Parisians appear to be divided. [An apt Gallic shrug.] At Les Acolytes, a laid-back café in the 10th arrondissement, Nathalie, who has worked there as a bartender for over two and a half years, believes that Parisians are generally too pessimistic about everything. "I'm looking forward to cheering on our athletes," she says. "It will be an opportunity for us to come together and support them."