Paris is my dream city. I love the food, the culture, the fa-shun, the language; I love it all! So once the idea of going to the Paris 2024 Olympics came up, I was instantly sold! This is how it happened – I was shooting the breeze with a friend back in May and she mentioned that she would be working in Paris for the Olympics. I didn’t even wait for her to invite me before I issued my own invitation to myself and immediately confirmed to her that I would also be in attendance alongside. (Side note, first Sardinia and now the Paris Olympics. What is with me and these random travel plans prompted by casual conversations? I need to secure funding if I am going to keep up these shenanigans!). Anyhoo, as the the trip got closer, my expectations and excitement were building. A big regret of mine is that I didn’t get to go to any of the London 2012 Olympics events so this was a chance to right that Olympic wrong! In terms of events, we had tickets for one football match and were just going to hope for the best for other tickets. Or just be in the streets for vibes. It all worked out though, and was such a fantastic experience. Here’s how I got on.
Arriving in Paris was a bit of a shocker. There were police EVERYWHERE, some terminal exits were closed so traffic was redirected and chaos reined. It took a while to connect with our uber driver but once we did, we were finally on our way. First Olympics activity was our football match – Spain vs Uzbekistan. A little different to your typical football match partly because in the Olympics the teams are so young (under 23 with a maximum of three players over 23.). We were hopeful that Lamine Yamal, the Spanish wonderkid, would pitch up but seeing as he had already put in his time at the Euros, that perhaps wasn’t a reasonable expectation. Funny enough, it felt like the entire Parc des Princes stadium was rooting for Uzbekistan as the underdog. Spain won though; no surprises there I guess.
For the Opening Ceremony, I was so glad to view at Czech House (the country house for Czechia) and be an honorary Czech for the night, especially once it started raining. There were so many amazing Opening Ceremony moments – the death metal band Gojira on the window ledges (mind-blowing!), Aya Nakamura with the military band (she showed all those right-wing haters!), the masked rider on the water (just wow!), Celine Dion at the Eiffel Tower (oh Celine you are everything!). For me though, the most incredible moment was undoubtedly the magnificent rendition of the French anthem by Axel Saint-Cirel on the Grand Palais rooftop. It was such a powerful moment – this beautiful black woman with her beautiful fro looking so regal singing La Marseillaise holding on the French flag as statues of other exceptional French women throughout history arose from the water of the Seine. Not gonna lie, the eyes got a little watery. So powerful! All in all, in my view the Opening Ceremony was a made-for-tv spectacle. The concept was fantastic and there were, as I just outlined, many magical moments. Overall, however, I think execution and TIMING left a lot to be desired especially around the start of the THIRD hour. I mean it was FOUR HOURS! Insanity. To think I had been jealous of those who had tickets to view along the Seine or at the Trocadero. Kudos to all the performers who did their absolute best and the athletes on the boats in that torrential rain. Yikes!
Finally, there was the table tennis which we managed to snag tickets for. We had also signed up for the free cycling event but sadly the rain put paid to those dreams and we moseyed down to the table tennis arena. The players are soooo good. I mean of course they are, they’re Olympians but watching them zip all over the place whipping the ball back and forth in what is actually quite a small space was so cool. Highlight match for me was China vs Egypt and North Korea vs Japan. Soooooo cool. I got so absorbed in the proceedings I almost forgot that I had a flight to catch.
Aside from the official events, there was an amazing buzz about the city for everyone there. It’s funny because Paris felt very empty so it seemed like it was only Olympics visitors and the volunteers (and ALL of the French police force!) in the city. A weird feeling but not necessarily unpleasant; just very different to what I would expect of a typical visit to Paris, at least going by my own experiences of the city. So for everyone left in the city, there was a particular energy that ramped up as the days went by leading up to the Opening Ceremony and the official opening of the Olympics. All in all, an unforgettable amazing experience and I want to go to all Olympics events now. Actually, how can we work on the Olympics coming to Denmark? Hmmm…
