Our Blog - Paris Olympics 2024 Part 2 - Paris, France

Welcome to Part 2 ... where I'll try to go through somewhat day-by-day. In addition to the actual events, we also did a bit of walking through Paris ... some sites that we have seen before, visiting fan zones, or just taking in the atmosphere. I must say, once you got away from the event locations, Paris was pretty quiet. I think that "normal" tourists stayed away from the city during the games (hotels were more expensive than normal, of course) and more locals left than normally do during the summer vacations. Some days we had more time than others, and sometimes we were just walking around and not really taking too many pictures.

I didn't want to bore you with food pictures every night, but of course I have to show a few. We decided that for most dinners, we wanted to try to find a really good restaurant for food that we don't have many good options for in Toulouse, like Japanese, Eastern European (like Polish/Ukrainian, Kazakhstani), and Thai. We also did a French steak place that we went to when we lived in Paris, and another French place just around the corner from our B&B. I will include the food pictures along with the days below.

Day 1

We took the train up on Monday and checked into our B&B. Our Olympics Day 1 blog covers a nice lunch restaurant, then our walk past the Porte Saint Denis on our way to a fan zone at the Hotel de Ville, over to the Seine, finishing in the Tuileries Gardens and the caldron. We didn't do any events this first day, since didn't want any potential delay on the train getting to Paris to impact our ability to see one of the events. For dinner, we went to a great steak place in the NE part of Paris near the Parc de la Villette. We had been there before a few times and we go back and forth between this place and another steak place each time we visit Paris. We were quite traditional for this first night, ending the evening with Crêpes Suzette.

Day 2

We started the morning with our first Olympic event, Men's and Women's Table Tennis (or Ping Pong) that took place at the Porte de Versailles. I don't have very much in my Day 2 blog even though it felt like we walked forever. After our event ended, we walked from basically the southern edge of Paris proper (the Porte de Versailles), up through various neighborhoods, grabbed lunch, and headed to the Eiffel Tower area. Unfortunately, with all of the events there, we weren't able to really do or see much around there. Dinner was a French place just around the corner from our B&B, where they had a really great octopus salad (among other things).

Day 3

Day 3 started very early for us. We had asked for a little "to go" breakfast since we needed to get up and on the metro before our B&B was serving breakfast. Our event this morning was at 8:30am in the North part of Paris at Porte de la Chapelle. We watched one of the group rounds of Badminton for both men and women. After that, we walked from there to the Bassin de la Villette to hang out at a fan zone there, and then visited a church, which I document in my Day 3 blog. From there, we headed to Bercy Arena for our first gymnastics competition, the men's all-around medal round. Since the gymnastics ended a bit late, we wanted to eat somewhere nearby and found a nice Japanese restaurant that was convenient where we started out with some hot Sake.

Day 4

With only 1 event, we did a bit more on Thursday. A walk through the Marais, past the Cluny Museum and the Sorbonne, then down past the Luxembourg Gardens and over to the Ile Saint-Louis, finishing off at Place de la Bastille. All this in the Day 4 blog. In the middle of the walking, we went back down South to the Porte de la Versailles again for a Ladies Volleyball match between Brazil and Japan. I may need to explain these a bit more about our dinner ... the restaurant specialized in Kazakhstani/Ukrainian/Russian food and we attempted to try out a good selection. We ordered the Varenikis, which are Ukrainian but very similar to Polish pierogi but included sautéed onions and mushrooms. Tom was a bit more adventurous, trying the Kazakhstani dish Beshbarmak, which has beef and horse sausage on top of flat pasta noodles. We both paired the dishes with Georgian wine (white for Susan, red for Tom). Then 2 different desserts, one with dried fruits, cream, and sponge cake; the other with thinner layers of cream and cake.

Day 5

Another busy day for our last full day in Paris for the Olympics, with our last 2 events scheduled. Our morning was spent in the Northern suburb of Saint-Denis where we watched the 3 meter springboard synchronized diving for men. We were a bit far away from the diving platforms ... thank goodness for the big screens! Then we spent some time as a tourist, and perhaps instead of calling this my day 5 blog, it really should be the Basilica of Saint-Denis blog! Then back to Paris to the Bercy Arena again, this time for the Men's Trampoline event. And our last evening .... cocktails and Thai!

We passed by the Notre Dame Cathedral a couple different times and took pictures. We seem to make a "pilgrimage" to Notre Dame every time we are in Paris, no matter what time of year we are there. The spire is back up but the work continues, as you can see in my Notre Dame Cathedral blog. With an estimated opening in December 2024, perhaps a trip to Paris in 2025 is warranted!

One of the things we really love about this B&B is that the owner is SOOOOO nice! Every day, we return to the room and find a little "gift" ... one day it was fresh fruit, then French macarons, then a traditional almond-flavored cookie from Provence called calissons. Our last night here .... a 1/2 bottle of French champagne ... OO LA LA! Viva la France!

WOW ... what a great time! Perhaps it won't be a "once in a lifetime event" after all!

Then we headed back home, picked up Lucy, changed suitcases, and left on another vacation. We were able to watch some of the remaining events, especially the evening ones, at the hotels at night. We also watched a bit of the closing ceremonies although only to the point where the athletes were all in the stadium. I watched a replay of the Tom Cruise part, which I thought was a great lead-in to LA 2028 and what we are hoping is a "Hollywood" theme.