Paris during the Olympics: fences, a croissant, and playgrounds without swings

Paris was too long a drive to do in one go, so we stayed overnight in Auxerre on the way. On August 14, 2024, we reached Paris, checked into the hotel, left the car in the parking lot, and took the metro to go for a walk. One of the stations here, by the way, is called “Stalingrad.”

A city behind fences

The first impression was a rough one. The whole center is blocked off with fences, some incomprehensible construction work is going on, half of the sights are closed, and people wander along the barriers looking for a way through.

Still, on the first evening we saw the Louvre with its glass pyramid and the church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois across from it, walked through the Tuileries Garden, and came out onto the Champs-Élysées, to the Arc de Triomphe. The parks on both sides of the Champs-Élysées are closed off too and stand half-dismantled: dusty, dirty, unpleasant to walk around.

A croissant under the tower

The Eiffel Tower is the main symbol of Paris, and of all of France, for that matter. Getting to it turned out to be hard: everything around it was closed off because of the Olympics, and the Champ de Mars was off-limits altogether. But we made it, and Leia ate a croissant right under the tower.

The second day

The next day walking was more pleasant: the streets we took had almost no closures. We stopped by Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, one of the oldest churches in the city. Leia sat in the colored light from a stained-glass window, and then she and her dad played around with the candles.

Of course, we didn't forget about playgrounds. And while Leia slept in the stroller, we simply walked the streets.

We had coffee at a sidewalk café, which is exactly how I had pictured Paris from the movies.

We never managed to get past one church decked out in Olympic decorations: everything was closed off there too. Notre-Dame de Paris stands in cranes and scaffolding: five years after the fire, it is still being restored.

Next came the Panthéon, a pond with ducks in a garden, and one more church where stained-glass windows cast multicolored patches of light on the floor.

Then we walked along the Seine and took the metro back. We rested in our room, and in the evening went to look for a playground nearby.

The bottom line

Paris disappointed us a little, but the Olympics are to blame: half-dismantled structures and the main sights closed. Still, we managed the main things: we walked around the city, saw the Louvre, the Champs-Élysées, and the Arc de Triomphe, ate a croissant against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower, had coffee at a sidewalk café, and watched Notre-Dame being restored. We also rated the Paris playgrounds, and not highly: we didn't come across swings on them even once.

On the second day I logged 24,000 steps, and the next morning we moved on, to Brussels.