Our Blog - Paris Olympics - Day 1, France

Our first day started VERY early .... 4:30 alarm, a walk to the train station to catch a 6:20am train to Paris. We arrived 10 minutes late, which was much better than we expected, given the sabotage of the rail network that occurred just 3 days before. We did much better making our way from the train station to the subway than we did during our last trip to Paris, and made our way to our B&B for the week. We were planning on just dropping our luggage off, but the room was ready so we were able to go ahead and get things arranged.

We met up with a Parisian friend of ours that we have kept up with since we lived in Paris 18 years ago. We try to see here every time we are in Paris and she came by our place on her last trip to Toulouse. The place was just around the corner from our B&B, which made it quite convenient. And it was a really nice place ... the interior was just gorgeous. It has very traditional French food at VERY reasonable prices (especially for Paris)! The interior is one of the best preserved examples of the Art Nouveau style in the city. The building was constructed in 1906 and decorated in the Art Nouveau style. There are peacock panels and 4 magnificent "flower women" (or nymphs), symbolizing the 4 seasons. It was renovated in 2018 with the sole aim of authenticity.

We then just did a 4-hour walk through parts of the city, wandering through various streets and neighborhoods. Since we lived in Paris for a couple years, we don't really need to go visit the main tourist sights. But you will see some of them in our pictures. We walked past the Porte Saint-Denis as we left the restaurant. It was originally a gateway through the Wall of Charles V that was built between 1356 and 1383 to protect the Right Bank of Paris. The medieval fortification had two gates, four towers, and a drawbridge over a moat. These walls were partly torn down in the 1640s to make way for the larger and more fortified Louis XIII Wall and then entirely demolished in the 1670s. In place of the old gate, Louis XIV has this monumental archway built, which would honor the capture of Franche-Comté in 1668 and the victories on the Meuse and Rhine during the Franco-Dutch War. I knew that there were 4 triumphal arches in Paris, but I didn't realize that this one was the first one that was built! After this one came Porte Saint-Martin (1674), Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (1806-1808), and Arc de Triomphe (1836).

Our next stop was at the Hotel de Ville and the Terrasse des Jeux. It seems mostly for kids and there are several different areas where you can do things like try handball or see what it is like to be in a wheelchair to play basketball.

Heading across the Seine, thee was this huge "piece of art" with gold banners on a building ... no idea why or if it represents something.

Here you can see a few things .... on the right-hand side is the Conciergerie (where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned until she was taken to the guillotine), then the Tribunal de Commerce (courthouse) in the middle with the dome, and then the thin spire on the left-hand side is from the Gothic chapel of Saint-Chapelle (in my opinion, the most impressive little church in Paris).

One one corner of the Conciergerie is the Tour de l'Horloge (clock tower) with this gorgeous clock. The first public clock in Paris was installed here in 1370. In 1585, King Henri III had a new dial installed, and the 2 large allegorical figures representing the Law and Justice were added. They were burned down during the Revolution and restored in 1852 and 1909, dates appearing at the bottom of the dial. You can see the remnants of the Opening Ceremonies ... the heavy metal band Gojira performed from the Conciergerie and there were red streamers that were supposed to look a bit like blood, harkening back to the guillotine and Marie Antoinette.

And if you watched the opening ceremonies, you saw that the Olympic cauldron is in the Tuileries garden and is a hot air balloon. Mind you, while it was actually "lit" and was a real flame during the opening ceremonies, the flame now isn't really a flame. The ring of what looks like fire is created using 40 LED spotlights to illuminate the cloud created by 200 high-pressure misting nozzles. You can get a close-up view with a free ticket, at a rate of 300 people every 15 minutes. The line was a bit long so I'm not sure we will try. However, Every evening, the lit cauldron and hot-air balloon will hover over the garden, 60 meters off the ground from sunset until 2 am. Perhaps one evening, we will walk by there after dinner so see it.