We had Paris 2024 in our sights for a couple of years - the Olympics and Paralympics - although in the end we didn’t make it to the Olympics. The boys were around for parts of the summer and it was going to be hard to get tickets to multiple events within our window.
But our calendar was clear for the Paralympics and it was much easier getting tickets to the events we wanted. So that was the plan - we’d head off for a couple of weeks at the end of August…
Our base: Maisons Lafitte
We planned to drive over and find a campsite on the edge of Paris with a good connection to the city. There were a few options, but we opted for Maisons Lafitte - about 30 minutes away from Paris on the RER A. Location-wise it worked out perfectly.
The campsite (Camping Sandaya) was a bit tired, but perfectly serviceable. We had a reasonable pitch with EHU, although a bit too close to the toilet block given that all the cubicle doors were designed to slam shut. There was a pool, a shop and a bar on site, although in the end we didn’t use any of them. The campsite was located on the Seine and we found a couple of quite pleasant runs to do from the door.
We invested in a couple of table tennis bats from Decathlon to make use of the concrete tables on site.
Itinerary
We purchased most of the games tickets in advance, with the exception of the table tennis.
There was no fixed plan for the other times, but this is roughly how it worked out:
- Day 1 (Thu 29 Aug) - Home to Paris
- Day 2 (Fri 30 Aug) - Exploring Paris
- Day 3 (Sat 31 Aug) - Fontainebleau
- Day 4 (Sun 1 Sep) - Wheelchair Rugby
- Day 5 (Mon 2 Sep) - Badminton & Athletics
- Day 6 (Tue 3 Sep) - Arc to Arc!
- Day 7 (Wed 4 Sep) - Musée Rodin & The Last Leg
- Day 8 (Thu 5 Aug) - Table Tennis
- Day 9 (Fri 6 Aug) - Vincennes
- Day 10 (Sat 7 Aug) - Musée d’Orsay & Athletics
- Day 11 (Sun 8 Sep) - Paris to Arras
- Day 12 (Mon 9 Sep) - Arras to home
The weather was quite mixed but we made sure our walking days in Fontainebleau and Vincennes coincided with good weather.
Paris
Having just hosted the Olympics, Paris was set up very well for Paralympics.
Our Paralympics
“Inspired by the iconic Phrygian cap, a historical symbol of liberty and freedom, the Paralympic Phryge brings this legacy into the world of sports. Known for its rich history and representation of freedom, the Phrygian cap has been a part of many significant moments in French history, making it a fitting symbol for the Games.”
Wheelchair Rugby
Fast, frenetic, end-to-end action… We saw the placing playoff between Canada and Denmark, followed by the semi final between Japan and Australia. The Japan Australia match finished 47-47 at the end of regular time, with Japan equalising in the final seconds after Australia had been on top. Japan went on to win 52-51 in extra time.
Badminton
We saw some amazing matches, most notably two gold medal matches:
- Women’s SL3 between Qonitah Ikhtiar SYAKUROH (INA) and XIAO Zuxian (CHN) (Xiao took the gold)
- Men’s SL3 between Kumar NITESH (IND) and Daniel BETHELL (GBR)
The Dan Bethell match was our first chance to support a British athlete. It was SOOOO close… Kumar eventually came out the winner in the deciding set (21-14, 18-21, 23-21).
We got to see Dan Bethell again at The Last Leg a couple of days later.
Athletics
We had two evenings at the athletics, on Monday 2 and Saturday 7 September. On the Monday evening, the upper tier of the stadium wasn’t open but the remaining seats were at least 75% full. The Saturday night was the last night of the games; all the tiers were in use and stadium was full. There was a great atmosphere in the stadium on both evenings.
We saw lots of Paralympic and world records broken over the two evenings. From a British point of view, Hannah Cockroft’s gold in the T34 800m was a highlight, with three British women finishing in the top 4. Aled Davis narrowly missed out on a gold in the F63 shot put.
Table Tennis
This was the only event we booked while in Paris. We were keen to see another event and chose an indoor event on a day the weather wasn’t looking too good.
Again we saw some fantastic matches. We were there to see Bly Twomey’s final match in the singles. Unfortunately she (GB’s youngest Paralympian at 13!) narrowly lost, giving her the bronze rather than a chance at the gold. Next time perhaps?
It was fascinating watching some of the tactics deployed in the table tennis. One athlete used a very high bouncy serve, which bounced close to the net on the opponent’s side. Their short stature opponent had to use an extension to return the serve, but that made it very hard to react quicly enough to the next shot. In the wheelchair matches, a common shot was a very high lob with lots of back-spin that again landed very close to the net. These were high risk shots (they often landed on the athlete’s own side), but when they worked they were unreturnable. Often there was enough back-spin on the ball for it to come back over the net - the other player didn’t have a chance!
The other stuff
Fontainbleau
We knew of Fontainbleau from its bouldering fame, but had never been there before. The Paris 2024 Pass was valid across the entire Ile-de-France network so we opted to head there for a day away from Paris.
Museums
We were always planning to visit our old favourite of Musse Rodin. There was a ticket available for both Rodin and Musee D’Orsay so we opted for that; you could use the second part of the ticket any time in the next three months so we didn’t need to do both on the same day.
The Last Leg
We’ve been in the audience for The Last Leg before in London so applied for tickets in Paris. Fun evening!
The Paris arc-run
Nicky’s idea, and what a great idea it was! Leave the campsite, catch the train to La Défense, run to to Arc de Triomphe, and get the train back!
Vincennes
Another “rest day” from Paris and the Paralympics. We were looking for somewhere within the RER network where we could walk for the day. We knew nothing about Vincennes but it turned out to be a great choice. The town itself is lovely and we spent the day walking around the Bois de Vinennes.
Arras
Rather than drive back in one go, we found a campervan park in Arras for a basic (and cheap!) night (AirPark Arras). We left Paris late morning and arrived mid afternoon, in time for a walk around the town and along the river. The AirePark has electric hook-up, a (as-in one) toilet and a single shower - enough for a stop-over. We left the next morning for the short drive to Calais and the ferry home.
