On Tuesday August 6 Jim happened to see an article on the BBC about ” is now a good time to holiday in Paris?” He mentioned it to Sandy who read it and she said “why don’t we go to Paris and watch the closing ceremonies?” A few minutes later Jim had booked return Eurostar tickets from London to Paris for the weekend, a family owned boutique hotel in Montmartre, Hôtel des Artes and tickets for the closing ceremonies as well as tickets for the women’s gold medal basketball game.
St. Pancras train station with one heavy backpack each.They serve a small meal and beverages in business class. Note the woman behind Jim, more on her later.The woman took this photo for us.After checking into our hotel in Montmartre we wanted to return to Sacre Cour as this was one of our favorite places in 2017 when we lived in Paris for four months.The best views of Paris are from here. The white Sacre Coeur church crowns the highest point of Montemartre and the area in front of the church offers extensive views of the city.We attended Mass here in 2017.Look at those happy smiles to be back in the City of Love.The artist’s district of Montmartre.One of two windmills in Paris, the other is at Moulin Rouge, the famous cabaret club.
Now the rest of the story. The woman walking with Sandy is a Canadian who has been living and working in London for years. While sitting and waiting for the train Sandy mentioned being unable to find a napkin in the coffee shop and this lady at the table next to us handed us one of hers with no further conversation. While finding our seat on the train we ran into her again and she was changing seats to get away from crying kids. She ended up across the aisle from us. Turns out she was going to London for the closing ceremony. She was also going spur of the moment and had not even booked her hotel yet. After researching hotels she asked where we were staying and ended up booking the same hotel. We took the Metro and walked to the hotel together. We then took her on our tour of Montmartre and had dinner together.
We left our hotel at 7am on Saturday morning and walked to the back of the opera house to watch the beginning of the women’s marathon. This is the 3K mark and a perfect place for watching as we could see them coming and going around the sharp bend.
Video of the runners going by us in a blink of an eye.The runner in the dark sun glasses is Dakotah Lindwurm who finished 12th in a time of 2:26:44. The other American was Emily Sisson who ran 2:29:53 for 23rd place and the third American Fiona O’Keeffe DNF (did not finish) and dropped out of the race at the 2 km mark due to injury.Coffee and croissants after our morning outing.It is hard to resist the pastries in Paris.Lush ripe strawberries to top a French waffle and drizzled with chocolate or Nutella sauce. Sandy’s obligatory stained glass window from a random church.
Our new Canadian friend Patricia wanted to join us on our walk for the day. We were taking about three hours to walk to the women’s gold medal game at Bercy Arena which started at 15:30. We took a detour for Patricia to see the canals of Paris. This video shows one of the locks in operation.Marché Bastille is one of the largest markets in Paris running for blocks down Boulevard Richard-Lenoir. We really enjoyed walking through this market.Place de la Bastille is a square where the Bastille prison once stood until the storming of the Bastille and its subsequent physical destruction during the French Revolution 1789-1790. No vestige of the prison remains today.The 5 Olympic rings represent each continent; Blue for Europe, yellow for Asia, black for Africa, green for Australia and red for America. They are connected to each other to embody a unified world. To the left of the Rings is the Paralympic Symbol which represent the values of courage, determination, inspiration and equality. It is called Agitos meaning “I move” in Latin. People queuing up to take their picture in front of the rings.Co-existing new and old architecture.Official Olympic gear on sale. We finally made it to Bercy Arena which is a Pyramid shaped 17,000 seat indoor venue.Not too bad of a line to get in. These Paris Olympics are very well organized and people attending were very polite and orderly.Our seats were 15 rows back at center court.
Video showing really cool Pre-game entertainment. Speaking of cool we were relieved to find the arena was air conditioned as the weather outside was sweltering..
This video shows the electrifying atmosphere in the arena as the teams were announced.At halftime Jim noticed President Macron and his wife sitting in front of us.It was so cool to see them in person. The unknown “somebody” greeting Macron sat directly in front of us and was interviewed by the press. We have no idea who he was or the vast number of “somebodies” that surrounded us. Brittany Griner, the tallest women on the team, standing at 6 feet 9 inches. We did know who she was.
This was a very close game, Many people including us were cheering both teams and just enjoying the athleticism of these women. This video shows a free throw. Most of the points that the USA team got were made on free throws. They kept missing shots on basket and really did not play to their potential.
Video of post game celebrations by USA.This was the eighth Olympic gold in a row for USA women’s basketball team.The medals table.
This is a video of the medals ceremony.
United States National anthem, quite moving. Brittney Griner was visibly crying. We can’t even imagine the emotion she must have been feeling going from spending 293 days in a Russian prison cell to winning an Olympic gold medal two years later.This was Paris’s 2024 Olympic mascot called Phryge. It was based on the traditional small Phrygian hats adopted by the revolutionaries and became an emblem of liberty during the French Revolution. Most people thought it to be really cute. We thought it was really weird.The Olympic Flame has been a tradition of the Olympic Games since 1936. The flame represents the positive values that man has always associated with the symbolism of fire, such as peace and friendship. It also acts as a link between the ancient and modern Games. The Olympic flame is lit at Olympia, Greece, several months before the Olympic Games.We went to Olympia ,Greece to see the flame the day before Sandy ran the Athens Greece MarathonSandy finished the marathon running into the Olympic stadium in Greece. Here she is showing off her finisher’s medal which was well earned as It was a very hilly course and a warm day but the spectators were great for 26.2 miles and handed out laurel wreaths to the runners. She put it in her hair (top left corner of photo shows it just slightly.We left Bercy Arena and took the Metro to Stade de France. We had Gin Tonics and a French hotdog. The second hot dog of the day as that was all that they had at Bercy Arena. No alcohol served within any of the venues so a non-alcoholic beer had to do.Our seats for the final ceremonies, very expensive but very poor as we were too low and could not see onto the stage and the “Jumbotron” was very tiny and an arena away from us.
Video of team USA coming onto the field.
Video of the French team entering the arena in front of us.
Our Jumbotron blacked out for about 20 minutes.The lights you see in the crowds were actually wrist bracelets that lit up and flashed different colors. It was all computerized to flash whenever they wanted it to. One section’s bracelet lit up in the shape of olympic rings.
This weird dude took way too long descending from the ceiling. It was about an hour after this when we had been sitting for several hours and dripping in sweat that we decided to leave and missed the singing of the National Anthem and Tom Cruise dropping down from the skylight. The morning after Patricia joined us for breakfast. No we did not plan on coordinating our stripped shirts!We had nothing planned for the last day in Paris so decided to do a walk down memory lane and went back to see the place where we lived for four months in Paris back in 2017. Yes we have been “homeless” that long.😮We had the top floor( our windows are circled in green). One window gave us a magnificent view of the Eiffel Tower. Our view from the dining room windowOur view from the kitchen window of the of the Sorbonne dome. We had several balconies.Our front door 95 Rue de Renne in the 6th arrondissement. Oh Paris you gave us such wonderful memories and the beginning of our retirement life.2017 with grandson Jack.Our next memory lane visit was to Luxembourg Gardens which was a short two blocks from our apartment and our favorite place to do our morning runs. Sandy use to like to wave to the Palace Guards as she ran past them.Running in the Tuileries 2017We also went to one of our favorite restaurants, Miznon which is located in the Marais district of Paris. It serves delicious Israeli food and was introduced to us by our friends Audrey and Neil. We liked it so much that we decided our next three month move would be to Tel Aviv. That is how random our decisions are on where to live next.One of their specialties is a charred whole head of Cauliflower and the delicious Pita bread and dips are free.This is a screen shot of the weather our last day in Paris so we decided to go to the movies in order to stay cool. We went to a theatre we used to go to when we lived there that shows movies in English. We opted to see the movie “Trap” starring Josh Hartnett which is about a man and his teenage daughter who realize they are at the center of a sinister event while watching a concert. It has a good twist at the end. When we got back to our Hotel we found these gifts from our new friend Patricia who gave it to the hotel receptionist to leave in our room. She is such a sweet person and we will keep in touch and hope to see her again before our time in London is up. This is our hotel’s staircase which was a bit treacherous to navigate. We were on the 2nd floor. Fortunately they had an elevator also. Leaving Paris from Gare de Nord.We returned to London via the Eurostar and in 2.5 hours we arrived at St Pancras Station, London.
Yes, Paris is always a good idea. After being away for seven years it is quite nostalgic and romantic to return. It is by far the most walkable city that we have lived in. Meaning that the miles and hours just melt away because there is so much to see everywhere. Most cities have quite a few boring sections which Paris does not. We are now considering a return trip to Paris for another longer stay.
What a lovely short trip. I have recently discovered that I am of an age where when I told someone I had been Paris, and when they asked, “when” it was nearly a quarter century ago!
Leave a Reply to PEGGY SCOTTCancel reply