Wednesday, July 31, 2024
This morning we decided to have breakfast back at Clint Café, where we had eaten on our first morning together in Paris. I again ordered the pancakes with bacon and eggs, which was just as delicious the second time. My parents enjoyed their meals as well and we were energized for another day of the Olympics!
We took the RER train to the western side of the city this morning, to the La Defense area. When we exited the metro station I was surprised to discover that we were at the base of La Grande Arche! I had seen photos of the building and seen it from afar, but I didn’t know that our venue today would be located so close to this unique bit of architecture. La Grande Arche is in the shape of a hollow cube and houses office space, a museum, and has an observation deck for visitors.
My parents and I walked around the building to make our way to La Defense Arena behind it. En route, we walked by a street vendor who was selling miniature flags of various countries, including Germany. I decided to purchase one so I could show support for Team Germany at the Olympics (as well as Vietnam). The venue was crowded when we arrived, but the security screening moved quickly and efficiently – I was becoming more and more impressed with the organization of the Paris Games.
Our seats were located in the upper section of the arena, which required us to climb several flights of stairs – they seemed to be never-ending as we kept climbing up and up! When we finally reached the upper level, we all went to get something to drink from one of the concession stands and thankfully they had cups with the swimming event logos! Drinks in hand, we went in to our seats. The stands themselves had steep stairs leading up to the seats, but we were very pleased with the location of where we were sat. We had great views of the pool for today’s event.
Event 07: Swimming
Today’s swimming event consisted of several heats: women’s 200m breaststroke, men’s 200m breaststroke, and the women’s 200m butterfly. Each group would have several heats, allowing us to see numerous swimmers competing throughout the morning.
At 11:00 the women kicked off the event with three heats of the breaststroke. In the first heat, we saw several swimmers from around the world: Sweden, South Africa, Ireland, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic. The South African swimmers came in first and second, with Ireland a close third. In the second heat were swimmers from the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, and Argentina. The Dutch swimmer came in first, followed by Australia and Spain. The final heat had competitors from the USA, China, Japan, Italy, Singapore, and Estonia. I joked with mom that she would have to chose who to cheer for: the Americans or her new favorite team, Japan! One of the Americans came in first, followed by China and then Japan.
Twenty minutes late the men came in for their four heats. As with the women’s round, we were able to see athletes from around the world compete: Puerto Rico, Zimbabwe, France, Spain, Greece, Poland, South Korea, Hungary, the USA, and Canada were among the nations represented. I enjoyed being able to attend some of the qualifying heats because it let us see representation from all over the world, rather than just the few countries who tend to dominate the final medal rounds. The top 16 swimmers would move on to the semifinal round, with the remainder being eliminated. At the end of the heat, the swimmers from Switzerland, Germany, the USA< Great Britain, and several other countries secured their spots in the semifinal round.
The final round of heats for the women’s 200m butterfly kicked off at 11:45 – I was surprised at how quickly each event was completed! We had three heats of the butterfly to watch and, as before, we saw a wide range of athletes, including ones from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Angola, Costa Rica, Serbia, and a few from the USA. It was nice to see them doing a different swimming stroke to the other two events as well.
Our swimming event concluded just after noon and we had some free time in the afternoon before our second event later in the day. I suggested to my parents that we head over to the Trocadero to try and get a good view of the Eiffel Tower. When we arrived at the Trocadero, much of the area was blocked off for the Olympics, but the terrace overlooking the tower and the Seine. At first we were unsure if we could enter the terrace because there was a security checkpoint and it appeared that people were showing tickets to get inside. This proved untrue though and we were able to go in to admire the view. The Eiffel Tower looked amazing with the Olympic rings hung on one side. While we were there an older American man approached us and began speaking with my dad. I had zero intention of engaging with him once I noticed he was wearing a lanyard stating he was part of some Christian organization, and I correctly assumed he was there to promote his religion.
The three of us then walked down to the River Seine to get another view of the Eiffel Tower. Due to various barriers and closures for the Olympics, the route down to the river was more roundabout than I anticipated. The final bit required us to cross a major roadway without any crosswalks. My dad was initially going to stay behind while mom and I crossed over the road, but he joined us when I mentioned that we wouldn’t be coming back across the street when we were done. Thankfully there was a lull in the traffic which allowed us to cross in safety.
The view of the tower from the banks of the Seina was even more spectacular than from the Trocadero. Mom and I walked along the river for a bit while dad rested in the shade. We were able to get some great pictures of the Eiffel Tower in between the trees that lined the riverfront. It was fun to be there with my parents so we could all enjoy this unique way of experiencing Paris together.
My parents and I decided to head back to the hotel for a short rest and to get out of the heat (the weather was still incredibly hot due to a ‘heat dome’ that had settled over Paris). We walked along the river to reach the closest metro strop, which was a very pleasant walk under the shade of the trees. The metro was close to the tunnel where Princess Diana had tragically died in a car crash and I quietly pointed it out to my mom.
Once back at the hotel, my parents rested in the air conditioned room while I went out in search of some iced coffee. It took me some time to find the Starbucks (I had left my phone back at the hotel to charge), but I was so happy when I got my iced latte – I needed the caffeine to help wake me up this afternoon!
In the late afternoon we took the metro over to Invalides station so we could attend our second event of the day. The area around Invalides was packed with spectators queueing to enter the venue, as well as people going to other places in the area (Place de la Concorde, various hospitality houses, etc). Our venue for this afternoon was located just outside Les Invalides, the location of the city’s military museum, behind which stood the impressive dome containing Napoleon’s tomb.
After clearing security, we were able to walk around the spectator area which had several concessions stands, shops selling Olympic merchandise and other activities to entertain attendees. There was one area that let people try their hand at archery, shooting arrows a short distance at targets. Nearby were several mist machines spraying out a cool mist for relief from the day’s heat. My parents and I eagerly took advantage of it and cooled down in the refreshing mist. I then got out my Vietnamese flag and wore it as a cape as we walked around the venue.
Event # 08: Archery
Our seats inside the venue were right in the middle, giving us an amazing view of where the archers would be shooting from as well as the targets at the end of the pitch. We were still out in the sun, but there was luckily cloud cover moving in that provided some shade as we sat there before the archery began.
Today’s archery consisted of both men’s and women’s singles elimination rounds. At 17:45 the men kicked off the event with three rounds of elimination. The first to compete was France and Great Britian, followed by Great Britian and India in the 1/32 elimination rounds. Each archer shot three arrows for up to six sets, with the archer winning the most sets moving on to the next elimination round. Both British archers won their elimination rounds, which meant that they would compete against one another later in the evening.
The women’s round began with France versus Slovakia, and then Great Britain versus Spain. The French archer was very talented and handily won her match against the Slovakian archer. The match between Britain and Spain was quickly won when the British archer won each of the sets, easily defeating her opponent.
We then watched the winners of the earlier matches compete against one another. In the men’s match between Tom Hall and Conor Hall (no relation to one another) was a good competition, coming down to the final set. In the end, Tom Hall came out the winner. The women’s match between France and Great Britian was equally intense and close, but the British archer managed to win.
Several additional rounds of archery were scheduled for tonight’s event, including a female Vietnamese archer, but they were unexpectedly cancelled due to inclement weather. The cloud cover that had moved in ended up turning into a storm in other parts of the city (it was not yet raining at the archery venue). However, the storm was due to move into the area and thus the remainder of the event had to be cancelled. It was disappointing to be sure, but also understandable.
We took the metro back to the hotel, where we relaxed for the remainder of the evening. My parents watched Olympic coverage on TV while I did some blogging and went through the hundreds of photos taken during the previous few days. I went to get some dinner on my own and read some in my book about the Paris Commune. We were all in bed and asleep by midnight.
This featured blog entry was written by Glichez from the blog Europe, Paris Olympics, & Asia 2024.
Read comments or Subscribe
By 