Paris Olympics 2024 – What You Need to Know
All over the city, you can feel the buzz of Paris gearing up to host two major sporting events of 2024 – the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Since we want you to have the best Olympic experience ever, Apartments du Louvre will tell you what you need to know to be part of the action. First, we would like to emphasize that both locations of Apartments de Louvre are ideally located for many of the events, due to our proximity to the banks of the Seine River, Place de la Concorde and Hotel de Ville. Public transportation is also easily accessible from our residences. So, let the games begin – here’s all you need to know to enjoy them.
Key Numbers and Dates
The Paris Olympics 2024 (10,500 athletes) officially begin on Friday, July 26th and will end on Sunday, August 11th. The Paris Paralympics 2024 (4,400 athletes) will be held from Wednesday, August 28th to Sunday, September 8th. The illustrious Olympic torch will be lit in Olympia, Greece on April 16th. It travels around Greece for 9 days and arrives in Marseilles aboard the legendary 3-masted boat, “Belem”, on May 8th. From there, it will voyage for 68 days, carried by a total of 11,000 torchbearers, passing through infamous places such as Carcassone, Lascaux Caves, the Palace of Versailles, and Mont St. Michel. The torch will also be part of the “Oceans Relay”, leaving mainland France from June 8th -17th to visit Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion Island and French Polynesia – crossing the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans – quite the trip. The torch finally gets to Paris on Bastille Day, July 14th, 2024.
The Opening Ceremonies of the Paris Olympics will take place within walking distance of Apartments du Louvre on Friday, July 26th. It will be the FIRST TIME EVER that the ceremony is not in a stadium! This groundbreaking event is using the banks of the Seine River (listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO) for its aquatic parade of 100 boats, a sporting procession of six kilometers from East to West, Austerlitz to Iena. It begins at 20:24 exactly (or 8:24 PM) with
the Greek delegation and will end at Trocadero around midnight for the remaining elements of Olympic protocol. There will be eighty giant video screens along the way for those of us not lucky enough to get tickets.
Speaking of tickets, be aware that there are a lot of fraudulent websites out there. Apartments du Louvre recommends that you purchase your tickets ONLY on the official Olympic website, https://tickets.paris2024.org/en/. No other sales platform is authorized to sell tickets or passes. This official site is 100% digital and is an exclusive, secure platform.
What’s New and Fun to Watch?
There are a few new additions to this upcoming edition of the Olympic Games. The most artistic discipline is “Breaking” (formerly known as Breakdancing), which will be “breaking up” the Place de la Concorde from August 9th -10th. We also have skateboarding happening at Concorde from August 6th -7th. However, probably the most spectacular new Olympic sport is “Sport Climbing”, which presents challenges such as scaling a 15-meter wall in 6 seconds or climbing a 4.5-meter wall without a rope. This event will be held at the Parc Sportif of Bourget from August 5th -10th. The magnificent surfing event will be held in Tahiti from July 27th -30th. The fearless athletes will surf through the iconic, glassy, mesmerizing Teahupo’o Wave which can be as high as 7 meters (23 feet)!
As the Olympic Games approach, Apartments du Louvre will continue to keep you informed on everything related to this historic event. In the meantime, you can visit the official Paris 2024 Olympics boutique, located just under the canopy of Les Halles, at 5Bis rue Pierre Lescot, right around the corner from Apartments du Louvre. You can find the perfect souvenir to take back home after your perfect trip to the Paris Olympics 2024! If you haven't booked your apartment yet, make sure to check our website we still have some availability left!