Anúncios
The city’s most prominent attractions will feature Olympic events. Tickets or not, you may watch the Games near Paris’ landmarks
Besides sports and bravery, this summer’s Paris Olympics will feature historical landmarks. Millions will visit Europe’s most densely populated city for four weeks of world-class sport in open-air arenas and along historic roadways (Olympics 26 July-11 August; Paralympics 28 August-8 September).
Swimmers in the River Seine will revive a 1923 ban, athletes will run in the footsteps of women revolutionaries who marched to Versailles in 1789 demanding bread and arms, and world-class cyclists will climb Montmartre’s steep, cobbled street where Louis Renault supposedly road-tested his first car in 1898. Cultural significance is tremendous.
Anúncios
To satisfy Paris 2024’s objective of reducing the Games’ carbon footprint, 95% of the world’s largest sporting event will be staged in existing venues or one of seven temporary buildings, generally in a famous plaza or beneath a monument. Football, rugby, and other big-venue sports and most Paralympic events are still available while most popular events are sold out. Register online to receive Paris 2024’s official resale platform’s “gold-dust” tickets in mid-May. If not, here are many methods to enter Paris’ most iconic locations.
1. Eiffel Tower
Beach volleyball and men’s Paralympic blind football will be played in Paris’ most iconic monument, the Parc du Champ de Mars’ temporary outdoor arena. Gustave Eiffel’s Dame de Fer will be exhibited to 12,000 spectators between jump serves and sand spikes. The 1889 World Fair’s 330m iron latticework beacon was temporary. Some 18,038 iron components have been altered, and Olympic medals are fashioned from precisely maintained parts. The national mint made each medal a few kilometers upstream. A hexagon was formed from an 18g crumb of Eiffel Tower iron for La Monnaie de Paris.
Anúncios
Eiffel Tower Stadium events need tickets, but the tower’s three levels provide a bird’s-eye view of the Olympics. Buy tower tickets with a timeslot online 60 days before the event and brag. Please bring binoculars!
The blockbuster monument is open everyday during the Olympics and Paralympics except for the opening ceremony (26 July) and the day prior.
2. Martian Champions
Few half-mile green lawns are as impressive as the Champ de Mars, bordered by the Eiffel Tower and École Militaire’s château.
Soak up the atmosphere
In addition to ticketed Olympic locations (accessible by public transport and bike lanes), spectators may watch the games on huge screens in fan zones for free. Pop-up café terraces across Paris may stay open until midnight to boost party atmosphere, and the Rive Droite (Right Bank) in front of Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) will be a cultural stage.
The temporary Champ de Mars Arena on the 18th-century military school’s parade ground will host Olympic judo, wrestling (freestyle and Greco-Roman), wheelchair rugby, and para-judo. Visitors to Paris since 2021 will know the curving, cross-shaped wood Grand Palais Ephémère, an arts/fashion/sports display center.
Keep an eye out for mid-May Olympic ticket resales and Paralympic ticket releases.
3. Grand Palais
The Grand Palais’ barrel-vaulted glass dome was Europe’s largest during the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition. Still is. Olympic, taekwondo, and Paralympic wheelchair fencing reveal the Big Palace’s Herculean nave, supported by 6,000 tons of mignonette green steel.
After substantial repairs in 2021, Grand Palais will reopen as a cultural center in 2025, making its Art Nouveau interior even more desirable during the Games.
4. Trocadéro
On August 3 and 4, Trocadéro, the iconic gardens across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower with decorative fountains, opulent museums, and spectacular dawn and sunset Eiffel views from its river-facing esplanade, will host the men’s (273km) and women’s (154km) road cycling races
Palais du Trocadéro, a beautiful Moorish tower and neo-Byzantine embellishments erected for the 1878 World Fair, was razed in 1935 to make way for the museum-filled Palais de Chaillot. If Trocadéro is too crowded, the palace’s Musée de l’Homme’s second-floor Café Lucy provides tranquil Olympic views.
Outside of the opening ceremony and cycling races, Trocadéro will host Champions Park (16:00–23:30 daily, 29 July-10 August). Winners will march through this fan zone each afternoon, and the finals will broadcast live on a huge screen at 19:00. Prepare to party.
5. Mount Montmartre
The Montmartre butte is one of the greatest sites to see amazing Olympic action for free. After crossing the Seine over Pont d’Iéna, anybody may cheer the peloton west to Versailles and beyond. Tickets are required for Trocadéro start/finish blocks. Download complete 273km men’s and 158km women’s race maps here.
The penultimate dramatic leg in Montmartre, three half-mile climbs up ancient Rue Lépic on bone-rattling pavés (Parisian cobblestones) with an average 6.5% slope, will be stunning. Grab a roadside spot early and bring a flag, banner, and hooter to support your favorite rider.
6. Invalids
XIV built the Hôtel National des Invalides in 1670 to shelter injured war soldiers. Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb has a dome. His bones were moved from St. Helena to the circular crypt in 1840 and lavishly set in a red porphyry sarcophagus with a Russian doll nest of five mahogany, ebony, iron, and lead caskets.
Watch Olympic and Paralympic archery on Esplanade des Invalides, the formal gardens in front of the military hospital-turned-museum. Or save the beautiful backdrop for one of the Games’ most emotive, free-to-watch moments: the Olympic men’s marathon and night-time Marathon for All featuring amateur runners on 10 August, and the women’s marathon that ends the Paris 2024 Games on 11 August
7. Alexandre III Pont
The gold-winged statues symbolizing industry, commerce, science, and the arts on this famous bridge will open spectacular Olympic activity. The bridge was built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition at Grand Palais to enable left-side Invalides visitors to cross the river under Art Nouveau streetlamps.
Olympic marathon swimmers will start and complete the 10km open-water race upstream from Pont Alexandre III. The road bridge will host free Olympic individual time trails (road cycling) and triathlon.
8. Concorde Place
Paris’s grandest plaza, which connects the Champs-Elysées to the Jardins des Tuileries and the Louvre, was where hundreds of people were guillotined in 1793, including Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinett Two years later, peace and reconciliation earned Place de la Concorde (Concord Square) its harmonious name.
Tip:
When the Place de la Concorde crowds become too much, retreat to the 17th-century Jardins des Tuileries to see the Olympic flame.
This historic square will feature Paris 2024’s most contemporary sports: BMX freestyle, 3×3 basketball, and skateboarding. Breaking, a blend of street dance, hip-hop, and DJ music, will premiere at the Olympics. Visit SPOT24 (101 quai Jacques Chirac, 15e) to learn about these and other youthful Olympic sports that integrate sport with urban culture and youth innovation if you can’t get tickets. Paris Tourism and the Lausanne Olympic Museum created the stunning Seine exhibition space, info center, and cafe-bar.
Next to Place de la Concorde’s competitive arenas, Parc Urbain La Concorde has DJs, big screens, meet-the-athlete sessions, urban-sport exhibitions, and a skate park for kids. Get same-day tickets. Tickets (€24) will be issued live when urban park visitors leave (maximum 25,000).
9. Versailles
Versailles, where Louis XIV converted a hunting lodge into a 17th-century residence for a king and 10,000 courtiers, is the most renowned French castle. Olympic and Paralympic cross-country, dressage, and show jumping will be contested in its massive park’s temporary outdoor arenas. The king held lavish dinners on the Grand Canal, illuminating its one-mile length with terracotta pot lights and floating two Venetian gondolas.
Neptune’s and Apollo’s Fountains, reflecting ponds, fountains, ornate basins, and soul-stirring sculptures are amid formal French gardens between the park and palace. Pre-order palace and garden tickets online for the Games.
The Olympic marathons may include Château de Versailles for roadside spectators. Ride 20km from Paris to Versailles to test your muscles.
