A few months ago, the advice would have been to avoid August in Paris like a plague of bedbugs. Hotel and Airbnb prices were through the roof, the Louvre hiked its entrance prices by almost 30 per cent, and Metro fares were soon to double. The city was set to become a giant, sweaty, and rather expensive game of sardines.
Metro and Louvre aside, amid plummeting accommodation rates, August looks to be an unusually affordable time to visit the Olympic and Paralympic host city.
The mass bookings predicted for the Games have fallen short of expectations and hotels that had blocked rooms at inflated prices are now offering those same rooms at much more reasonable rates. It isn’t hard to find a decent room in the city centre for less than £200 per night.
Even getting there may not cost the Earth: Air France is set to lose custom during the Olympics, reporting a predicted loss of €180m as customers look elsewhere during the games.
Perhaps visitors have chosen a greener mode of transport, or perhaps it’s because almost two thirds of Olympics tickets have been bought by people living in France, but Paris 2024 doesn’t appear to be drawing in the crowds of foreign visitors that were seen during London’s 2012 tenure.
It’s not the number of medals GB won, or a specific sporting event, that stands out from London 2012, though, but the atmosphere all over the city. Whether you had tickets to an event or not, London positively hummed with happiness. Strangers even smiled at each other on the Underground.
The same is likely to be true in Paris, where the opening ceremony on Friday – titled “Games Wide Open” – will break with tradition and take place along the River Seine rather than in the main stadium, as 6,000 athletes take to the water with the capital’s iconic riverside buildings as a backdrop. It should set the scene for a summer of spectacles. Here’s six reasons you should go, even if you don’t hold a ticket to the Games.
1. See some Olympic events for free
It’s difficult to ticket events that take up lots of space, so both the marathons and the triathlons are free to watch (bar a ticketed stand on Alexandre III bridge for the triathlon).
You can watch the triathlon, free of charge, from the banks of the Seine on 30-31 July, and on 5 August.
The marathon is taking place on 10-11 August, a loop route running from central Paris all the way out to the Château of Versailles.
There will also be numerous “free zones” with giant screens. The three biggest sites (with various other activities including workshops, climbing walls and musicians) are Champions Park, Trocadero, the Hôtel de Ville and Parc des Nations, La Villette.
2. Paris’s museums and galleries go Olympic
It seems almost every museum or gallery in Paris is running some kind of Olympics-themed exhibition this summer. You’re spoilt for choice, but more likely to avoid crowds if you opt for smaller galleries.
Galerie Goldshteyn-Saatort’s exhibition Gaîtés Olympiques features the work of 10 artists and a clever mix of classic art and sport. Photography gallery Roger Viollet gives a platform to the history of women in sport, focusing specifically on the period between the two World Wars.
The Pantheon’s exhibition is on the history of the Paralympics, since their inauguration in 1948, and the journey towards inclusivity in sport.
Not to be missed is La Mode en Movement – “fashion in movement” – an exhibition at Palais Galliera, featuring sports fashion throughout the ages, and knitted bikinis galore.
3. Buy last-minute Olymnpic tickets on the cheap
Make sure that you only buy or sell your tickets through the official platform, Paris 2024 Tickets (download the app or use the portal). They’re sold at face value, plus a fee of 10 per cent for the buyer and are only available up to 12 hours before the event starts.
New tickets will also be released daily for a variety of sessions until the end of the games, but there are also plenty of events currently on sale, including group stage football matches and rugby sevens (from €24) and Paralympic Discovery passes that give access to a range of sports on a named day (€24).
4. Fantastic Paris hotels at reasonable prices
Say au revoir to the €1,000-a-night former student lets that threatened to swamp Paris a few months ago. Hotel Orphée has August doubles from €280 with breakfast, and Bercy Arena, hosting basketball, artistic gymnastics and trampolining, is just a 25-minute walk away.
Brand new is the luxurious, 1920s-themed Le Grand Hôtel Cayré in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Some of the rooms even have views of the Eiffel Tower, and rates during the Olympics start at €490. Invalides (cycling, several athletics disciplines and archery) is 1km away.
The Playce Hotel on the outskirts of Montmartre is less than an hour’s walk from many of the Olympics venues, including La Concorde, showing newish sports breakdancing, skateboarding and BMX freestyle. It has August doubles available for £125.
On Location, the official hospitality pack provider for the Games, has some good last minute packages, such as semi-final tickets for the men’s basketball, with three-star accommodation, for €475pp.
Self-catering can be a steal if you look in the right places – Vrbo has apartments that are a stone’s throw from the Stade de France, including this five-person flat, available for most of the Games, for just £55pp/night.
5. Paris is going to be one big party
There are pop-up events happening all over the city, but a reliable place to go is the Decathlon Playground in La Villette on the north-eastern outskirts of the city. One of Paris 2024’s official partners, the urban park is hosting free concerts, DJ sets and performances daily until 10pm (with the exception of 27 July and 11 August).
The popular Paris Plages event, which turns the city’s watersides into pop-up beaches until early August each year, will run throughout the summer. There is free swimming in specially created pools on Canal St Martin near La Villette every Sunday afternoon until 1 September.
And while you’d normally expect to see fermé signs in cafes, brasseries, bakeries and restaurants all over Paris throughout August, this year, many are expected to stay open at least until the Olympic closing ceremony, expecting visitors numbers to increase with the Games.
6. You can get to Paris with ease on Eurostar
Eurostar was spared the meltdown caused by the CrowdStrike IT update last week. As the official travel provider for Team GB and Paralympics GB, it is putting on additional trains to handle the increased traffic – up to eight more services on the London-Paris route on the busiest days – as well as decorating some of its e320 trains gold in honour of the athletes.
It is expecting two million passengers to travel on its trains between July and September, but there are still £65 one-way fares available in the final week of the Olympics, and from £56 in the first week of the Paralympics.
Once in Paris, a newly inaugurated Metro extension whisks visitors up to St Ouen and the Olympic Village.