#11 The Paris Summer Olympics: July 2024
Given the Olympics’ rich history and tradition, as well as the 100th anniversary return of the Summer Olympics to Paris, attending the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad was quintessential Bucket List material.
Add to this that we believed the Olympic motto, “Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter,” (or “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together” for those who failed to take/pass Latin in high school), had nothing on our yet-to-be crafted Bucket List motto.
This combination demanded that we head to Paris to see what all the tumultus (loose English translation: hubbub) was about. In addition to Paris, sixteen cities throughout France hosted 329 medal events in thirty two sports over nineteen days of competition. Not surprisingly, determining how best to tackle the Games required considerable planning. Thankfully, Bucket List Events had our backs.
The initial pressing questions included the basics such as where to stay. When to attend? Which events to see? What non-Olympic activities should be undertaken? Each of these, among other considerations, had to be assessed with several additional matters in mind, key among them the friends and family that joined us.
In the end we decided upon a mix of unique competitions, sporting events taking place at iconic venues, and those offering classic Olympic competition. We achieved this by attending the Opening Ceremony along the Seine River, watching beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower Stadium, and witnessing the world’s greatest swimmers go for the gold. We then mixed in two remarkable, must-see day trips: a beyond-emotional one to Normandy and the other to the Champagne region to imbibe the world’s best sparkling wine. But more on all of this later.
As has been the case with most global sporting events, the lead up to the Paris Games was marked with controversy surrounding the safety and security of tourists, accusations of rampant price gouging, and other pearl-clutching concerns (beware the bedbug infestations!); many of which never fully materialized by the way.
Shortly after settling into the Hilton Paris Opera, our attention quickly turned to the Opening Ceremony. Sure, we spent a day or two getting acclimated to the city and, when doing so, the so-called “Olympic Fever” was palpable, particularly at Madame Brasserie – an amazing restaurant located within the Eiffel Tower where we spent the afternoon dining on a wide variety of delicacies, all while taking in the sensational citywide views and discussing the next day’s ceremony.
For the first time ever, the Opening Ceremony was not held in a stadium; rather it wound its way down 3.5 miles of Seine, the river that runs through the center of Paris. Deemed “a floating parade,” the vast majority of the 10,500 athletes representing 205 delegations boarded 85 boats for a 45-minute ride that passed by famous French landmarks before culminating near the Eiffel Tower.
To be among the 104,000 spectators to watch this spectacle from the lower quays was truly something to behold. But it was by no means merely the floating parade that dazzled.
French singer-songwriter Juliette Armanet’s rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” accompanied by pianist Sofiane Pamart whose piano was lit aflame during the performance, was spectacular. The fact that the performance took place in the rain immediately after the parade of nations added to its impact and arguably made it the highlight of the evening.
And this was no easy feat given two other incredible visuals. The illusion of a silver horse galloping down the Seine as a representation of the Olympic spirit was surreal. As was the boat carrying international sports superstars – Rafael Nadal, Carl Lewis, Serena Williams, and Nadi Comaneci, each of whom carried the flame to the Louvre where, thereafter, it eventually found its way to a massive cauldron. The cauldron, sporting a ring of flames, was attached to a hot air balloon. Once lit, the balloon rose into the sky and the evening came to a close as Celine Dion wowed with her presentation of “Hymne à l’amour.”
Equal parts pageantry and precipitation, the evening proved literally and figuratively to be in-Seine.
NOTE #1: Total attendance, including non-paying attendees, was 326,000.
NOTE #2: This was our second Bucket List event attended by French President Emmanual Macron (the World Cup final being the other). It rained heavily at both.
AUTHOR’S NOTE #1: Maybe he should stop crashing our events.
Other than taking a fantastic walking food tour through Montmartre, one replete with croissants, designer chocolates, and six wine and cheese pairings, we relaxed the day after the Opening Ceremony and generally caught our breath following the previous night’s extravaganza. And it was a good thing we did as the next day’s trek to Normandy proved emotionally draining.
In thinking about our trip to Normandy it struck us that, but for the heroes that landed at Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword Beaches, there could be no bucket list. Their extraordinary bravery and limitless sacrifice shone a bright light on the relative frivolity of not only our day-to-day lives, but even more so the abject triviality that is our Bucket List.
There are no words, pictures, or videos that even begin to do justice when attempting to describe Normandy and the gravity associated with every element of it. All one can do is attempt to absorb it, mostly in silent reflection. And that we did — in quiet astonishment from three crucial vantage points.
We first navigated the cannon casements and machine gun nests that the Germans had established as part of their “Atlantic Wall.” Their unfathomable advantage was astounding. It was made even more so as we then stood on Omaha Beach, looking up at the clifftops where the enemy awaited the liberating soldiers coming ashore. This truly chilling pair of experiences was magnified yet again when exploring Pointe du Hoc, a high point between Utah and Omaha Beaches. It was here that the Second Ranger Battalion famously scaled 100 foot high cliffs and neutralized the German artillery battery stationed there, marking a pivotal turning point in the D-Day battle.
But if, for any reason, these experiences lacked resonance, one only need visit the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, which we had the privilege to do at day’s end where, as part of a daily tradition, taps was played at 5:00 PM as the American flag was lowered.
The solemnity of it all provided the most remarkable yet intersecting contrast. On the one hand is the death defying courage of the soldiers from all over the world that landed at Normandy to liberate Europe in 1944. Eighty years later, on the other hand, the world’s most accomplished athletes are demonstrating their exceptional athletic talent in front of a global audience in previously German-occupied Paris.
While many from both events were bestowed medals, the Olympic athlete is the one that stands on the shoulders of (true) giants. We fully appreciated this as we headed to our first sporting event.
Any discussion of Olympic beach volleyball begins and ends with location as it was as iconic as it gets. The Champ-de-Mars, the park located at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, was converted to become the Eiffel Tower Stadium. In doing so this backdrop bested, in our opinion, other Olympic venues such as those hosting equestrian (Palace of Versailles) and fencing (Le Grand Palais).
Following a fabulous private tour of the Louvre in the morning, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower Stadium that evening where we watched the Qatari men pull off a massive upset of Sweden in a three set thriller, as well as the German women beat host France. The nightcap, featuring the USA versus Australia women’s match, ended with the American team of Nuss/Kloth prevailing two sets to none in what had become a decidedly raucous evening at the base of the Eiffel Tower.
Because the tradition of athletes spraying each other (and the crowd) with champagne began in 1967 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, we believed visiting the Champagne region the next morning was a natural extension of our trip.
Accordingly, our second day trip took us 90 miles east of Paris to the Champagne region; the only place in the world where such sparkling wine can be called champagne. 300 million bottles of champagne are produced annually, sixty percent of which are exported.
On a very hot afternoon we visited two wineries, the first being Pierre Domi, which is a small family-owned winery in Grauves that produces 80,000 bottles per year. The other was a behemoth, Nicolas Feuillatte, located in Chouilly, that generates 20 million bottles per year in a decidedly industrialized fashion. The quaintness of Pierre Domi carried the day.
We recovered from our champagne tasting adventure in time to witness firsthand a scintillating night of swimming, in which five medal events took place, two of which were won by Frenchman Léon Marchand and one by the USA’s Katie Ledecky.
After winning the 200m butterfly following an amazing late-race comeback, Marchand had fewer than 50 minutes from the time he collected his medal until he needed to be on the starting block for the 200m breaststroke final. No swimmer had ever won an Olympic medal in both the butterfly and the breaststroke – let alone on the same night – and Marchand achieved this much to the delight of the boisterous French crowd in attendance. He eventually finished with four golds, making him one of the breakout stars of the Games.
Not to be outdone, Katie Ledecky extended her Olympic prowess by winning the 1500m freestyle race the same evening; and did so while setting an Olympic record with a time of 15:30.02. She has yet to lose this race in more than 14 years and owns the 20 fastest times in world history in the event. Ledecky went on to medal in two more events, increasing her total to fourteen in her career – nine of which are gold, making her the most decorated female Olympian of all time. This feat was unabashedly celebrated as Ledecky was selected to be one of two Team USA flag bearers at the Closing Ceremony (rower Nick Mead being the other).
Since 1992, national Olympic committees have created “country houses,” which are essentially hospitality spaces for athletes to spend time with their families and meet and mingle with invited guests and sponsors. For the first time ever, a limited number of day passes were sold to the Team USA House, which was located at Palais Brongniart. That fact that the palais was built in the early 19th century to house the Paris Stock Exchange added greatly to the evening’s allure.
We had the chance to meet and mingle with established superstars such as swimmer Missy Franklin and long jumper Mike Powell, as well as emerging ones to include the recently minted gold medal winning women’s fencing team – all against a backdrop of athlete interviews and Olympic events being televised throughout the venue.
This was the best possible way to end the trip – celebrating with Olympic champions of all stripes – well, more accurately, 13.
Final Score: Team USA 126 (medals won), Bucket List 11
