Paris Olympics 2024

4 Aug

26th of July 2024. Paris. I’m here somewhat by accident. We’re going to a wedding outside of Paris tomorrow, but today is Friday and it’s the Olympics Opening ceremony night. We’ve secured ourselves the pass jeux, but we weren’t that bothered so by the time we got to anywhere close to the ceremony, most good spots were already taken. We tried, honestly. Oh well, this little hiccup won’t stop us from enjoying the ceremony, especially since it started raining. We decided to setup camp in a nearby watering hole with a tv where the ceremony was being played live and I have to admit… it was amazing! I’m sure that a lot of people have many complaints and I’m sure there were a lot of errors, the weather was abismal, but the energy that the French managed to create was fantastic! We enjoyed every second of it! Now on Saturday morning we left Paris, but we got back on Sunday evening and managed to make our way to the beautifully designed Olympic cauldron a.k.a. the Olympic Flame. It’s such an incredible work of art and an homage to French history as the hot air balloon was invented by two French men, the Montgolfier brothers.

The Olympic cauldron at the Tuileries Garden

It made me feel so pumped for the whole thing that I decided to get up for sunrise the next day and cycle through half of Paris to see the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower. And I do not regret loosing sleep. The sunrise, being next to the tower, the beautiful golden glow… it was incredible! I’m really glad I’ve made the effort.

The Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower in Paris 2024

On a separate note this was the first time I’ve used a Lime/Uber bicycle! I’m a cycling purist and I’ve been exclusively using my Bianchi Via Nirona for years now, but even I have to admit that at 4:30am on a warm Parisian morning, if you’re trying to quickly get to the Eiffel Tower, these bikes do make sense, especially now, when you are only allowed to leave them in specific places.

Anyways, here are few more photos from that beautiful morning.