An American in Paris: Behind the Scenes at the Olympic Summer Games

PARIS — What a place to have as the dateline, right?

SportsTravel is  at the Olympic Summer Games in Paris and throughout our time here, we’ll offer some notes and observations about the people and places that make up this event. You can always check out some behind-the-scenes access as well at our Instagram story from Paris.

French Success

While not the highest priority, having the host country do well athletically is always a boost for the feeling of an Olympic Games. Saturday that came true at the men’s rugby sevens as France beat Fiji to win the men’s gold medal.

France’s rally to beat South Africa in the semifinals was perhaps the loudest arena we’ve ever experienced; the anticipation had been building all afternoon, with La Marseillaise sung around the Stade de France as the United States and Ireland faced off beforehand.

It was just an incredibly cool moment to experience.

Now You See It, Now You Don’t

One thing you don’t see when watching on NBC is how fast organizers can move on from the national anthems played at medal ceremonies. When the U.S. men’s 4×100 relay team won the first gold for Team USA on Saturday night, within five seconds of the anthem ending, the flags were being lowered back down. They were almost all the way down and being folded back up by the time the relay team was walking off the podium.

Common Language of Sport

The melting pot of the Olympics can be overwrought by the IOC but there is some merit to it. At our hotel when heading downstairs, a person speaking a different language on the phone looked at our badge, through hand gestures asked if we were going to the Games. When the reply was that we were going to rugby, her eyes lit up: “YOU GET TO SEE FIJI!”

Serious About Sustainability

One thing mentioned ahead of the Games is Paris’ emphasis on sustainable sport — and they are taking it seriously. Anywhere at a venue, you cannot order a drink and have it given to you in a bottle. Instead, it is poured into a reusable cup (no lids) so everything is guaranteed to be recycled. And if you return the cup to a stand, you get two euros back.

A Taste of Paris

There are few things Parisians have more pride in than its boulangeries that dot sidewalks around town. The one next to our closest Metro station, with a storefront that doesn’t exactly scream amazing, has perhaps the best baguettes we’ve ever tasted … until the next morning when we went to breakfast at a boulangerie that Le Monde recommends as one of the best in Paris and did not disappoint between the baguettee, pain au chocolate and cinnamon roll plus, oh, only the best orange juice and Americano that we’ve ever drank.

And now that we’ve brought up mass transit; from the time SportsTravel arrived in Paris on Wednesday, almost all our travel has been on the Metro. With trains in various directions arriving every 10 minutes and sometimes less, it’s highly recommended for anybody who ever takes a destination trip— although to forewarned some underground stations are confusing directionally if you’re not at one that is specifically been dressed up with directions for the Games.