May 20 - Olympic Sight Tour, French Open, and Free Time!

Today was an awesome day. We started out by visiting a bunch of the different sites that were involved with the Paris 2024 Olympics. This included the Eiffel Tower (home of the opening & closing ceremony, beach volleyball, and the Champions Park), Les Invalides (archery), Concorde Square (3v3 Basketball, Skateboarding, BMX, & Breaking), and more! Seeing all of these sights, especially with the Paris Olympics being less than a year ago, was such a fantastic way to see how to plan and organize an event like this. Imagining the millions of people who walked where we were, watching Olympic gold medalists, and imagining what that atmosphere was like was truly incredible. The best part? These sights are just as breathtaking without the Olympics as they are with them, so everything we saw was still so magical.

 

 

After visiting these incredible places, what better than walking the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and having some authentic French cuisine? We ate at L'asalce Restaurant and had food like French onion soup, escargot, steak frites, and more. Something about the atmosphere made the food taste even better. After that, we walked to visit the Arc de Triomphe, one of the most iconic landmarks in the world. The arc was part of various racing routes during the Olympics, so we admired the beauty while learning something new.

Our next stop was the Roland-Garros Stadium, home of the French Open and Olympic tennis last year. As one of the most iconic competition venues for tennis in the world, it was amazing to watch matches here. On the main court for today, the Court Suzanne-Lenglen, French athletes were featured throughout the day, which helped make the environment even more exciting than it already was. As someone who has never really watched tennis before, I was blown away at how impressive it is to watch at a professional level and by the beautiful venue we were lucky to be in.

 

 

This marked the end of our planned itinerary for the day. Since we were crunched for time earlier in the day, most of the group returned to the Champs-Élysées to shop and explore. As someone not looking to shop, I instead watched a little more tennis before heading to Notre Dame. One of the most iconic churches in the world, Notre Dame has been a must-see location for as long as it has existed. And it certainly lives up to that pedigree. The architecture, statues, memorials, and stained-glass windows are all stunning, and the photos of the cathedral don't do it justice. There was also a church mass taking place while I was visiting, and something about seeing the church as a place of religion and not just a landmark made it even more incredible. I visited Paris 9 years ago and can barely remember my trip; seeing Notre Dame in all its beauty brought back many amazing memories. Every single day on this trip has been truly remarkable and incredible. Still, today stood out for me because we got to experience the beauty of Paris firsthand, and it was absolutely stunning.