Will The Olympics Ruin Your Trip to Paris?

Will the 2024 Paris Olympics be chaos? Probably, but we’re hoping mostly the good kind. This is my comprehensive guide to the Olympics in Paris with full citation links below, and the link to my guide right here https://go.parisinmypocket.com/gMZyAm – get it for everything you need to have a great time whether you’re coming for the Olympics or anytime after.

The most chaotic period of the Paris Olympics is going to be the eight days leading up to the opening ceremony, and the day of the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics itself. Otherwise, the main takeaway from all my research is that Paris has worked really hard to make sure the Olympics are as unobtrusive as possible. Most of my favorite things in Paris won’t even be close to the crowds.

00:00 Intro to the Paris Olympics
00:35 General 2024 Olympics Information
00:56 Dates and Places
02:35 Interactive Map
04:19 Tickets and Apps
06:08 Attending Events
06:35 Transportation During the Paris Olympics
06:42 The Metro
07:25 Opening Ceremony
08:39 Paris Olympics Metro Prices
10:21 Getting to and from the Airport
11:17 Housing Costs
11:36 Monuments
13:00 Local Businesses and Restaurants
13:36 Pass Jeux
14:43 Tours of Paris
15:20 Conclusion

Will monuments and museums in Paris close during the Olympics? Will the Metro still work during the Olympics? What about local businesses, tours, and other tourist attractions? All that and more listed above. Links to all of my sources below.

My tour recommendations:
Fat Tire Tours: https://fas.st/t/xTeG22a5
Bike About Tours: https://www.bikeabouttours.com
Photo Shoot with My Paris Portraits: https://www.myparisportraits.com
Scooter Tour with Badass Tours: https://go.parisinmypocket.com/BADASS
Motorcycle Tour with Txango: https://go.parisinmypocket.com/TXANGO

Read our full blog on the Paris Metro during the Olympics:
https://parisinmypocket.com/blog/the-paris-olympics-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-metro

Information on the Olympic flame:
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240327-olympic-flame-to-burn-near-louvre-during-paris-games-source

Interactive map of closures:
https://anticiperlesjeux.gouv.fr/carte-interactive-impacts-deplacements-ile-france

Download the Olympics app:
https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/download-olympics-mobile-app

Download the ticket app:
https://tickets.paris2024.org/campaign/en/guide-utilisation-app-tickets

Article mentioning water bottle allowance outdoors:
https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/venues/invalides

Article about the audience size at opening ceremony:
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240131-france-crops-crowd-numbers-for-olympics-opening-ceremony

IDF Mobilités Olympic app:
https://www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/en/dossiers/paris-2024-games-official-app

IDF Mobilités app:
https://www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/titres-et-tarifs/supports/smartphone

Citymapper app:
https://citymapper.com/

24 questions for the Olympics and Paralympics 2024 (French):
https://events.parisinfo.com/adherents/ppt_jop_290524.pdf

Summary of games preparation:
https://parisjetaime.com/eng/convention/article/getting-around-before-olympic-games-a1608

Lindsey’s Article about restaurant closures:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/04/travel/paris-olympics-restaurants-shops-closures.html

Apply for the Pass Jeux
https://www.pass-jeux.gouv.fr/

Grab my guide for all the best recommendations of Paris:
https://go.parisinmypocket.com/gMZyAm

Thanks for watching!

CREDITS:
Filmed by: Arianna Razavi & Faazil Ahmed
Producer: Emily Guernsey
Additional research: Jessica Jeacle
Music by: Dyalla
Written, edited, etc.: Jay Swanson

Whether you’re visiting before, during, or after the Olympics and Paralympics, you might notice a number of changes and disruptions around the city. This might leave you wondering, how will it affect my trip? Will the monuments be open? Or should I even skip Paris entirely this summer? There isn’t one concrete source of information for all of this, and in doing my research to make this video, I’ve discovered a number of things that will also not be decided until the last minute. But I thought it was time that we take all of this information and compile it into one location for you here in this video. There’s a lot to get through, and we want to get through it quickly, so buckle up. I’m Jay Swanson. I lived here for ten years, and this is Paris in my Pocket’s full guide to navigating Paris during the 2024 Olympics. Let’s go. The Olympics will be held in the greater Paris area, but also around the country and beyond for things like football, basketball, surfing, sailing, handball, shooting. You get it? By contrast, the Paralympics will be held almost exclusively in the greater Paris area. Everyone here refers to them as les JO for les Jeux Olympics, so don’t be surprised if you see the initials JO all over the city. The Olympics themselves are going to be held from July 26 to August 11, and the Paralympics will be held from August 28 to September 8, 2024, obviously. The truly crazy period is going to be the eight days leading up to the opening ceremony. July 18 through 26 is going to be the most disruptive period of the entire Olympics, and I’ll explain why here in a minute. But what you should know above all is that most of the city will remain unaffected. In fact, if you were to do Paris the way that I love doing Paris, then you might not even notice that much of a difference. Get my guide at parisinmypocket.com right now to get every recommendation you need to have a great time in Paris, whether during the Olympics or not. And a ton of recommendations away from the crowds. The principal area of the Olympics will be on the boring side of town, aka the west side of town, and mostly near the river. These include Trocadéro, Le Champ-de-Mars, Invalides, the area between Pont Alexandre III and the Grand Palais, and then Place de la Concorde. The Tuileries themselves might also end up being a little bit tighter on security because they’re rumored to be holding the Olympic torch. But as I learned at a Paris Olympics informational meeting last night, they’re not publicly committing to anything regarding the torch until closer to the games so that might change. We’ll put links below about that. There are other sites located outside of central Paris, like the equestrian stadiums in Versailles, the aquatic center in Nanterre, and sports stadiums like at Parc des Princes and Saint-Denis. But most of these places are where 99% of visitors would never go, with the obvious exception of Versailles. For those of you visiting after the Olympics, be aware that most of these temporary stadiums won’t be taken down until October and even November in some cases, like the stadium in Trocadéro right behind me. Even with these sites locked down, the areas immediately around them are meant to remain accessible, including the museums and monuments next to them. We’ll talk about that in a minute. For now, the most annoying section is going to be the period leading up to the opening ceremony, and for that, I’ve got a little map to share with you. There’s a fantastic map that we’ve linked to below that shows you everything that’s going to be blocked off and closed in the lead up to the Olympics and the Paralympics, which is when things are going to be the craziest. It starts on July 15, and as you play with the dates, you can see how like the lead up to the opening ceremony, things get pretty, pretty super blocked off. But once you get to the 27th, everything clears up very quickly. And while even this red and blue might feel really restrictive on certain days, it’s really important to remember that the red and the blue are for cars, not for cyclists or pedestrians. So you can still walk through here and shouldn’t have any problems. But it’s also a good reminder: don’t drive in Paris. Traffic is already insane, and we aren’t even to this period yet. So Ubers and taxis are probably gonna be really slow and fairly painful ways to get around town. Again, the red you’ll be able to walk through. The only areas you’re not gonna be able to go through anytime during the Olympics is gonna be where it’s black or gray. The gray and the black are the locations where the actual events are happening, or where they’ve blocked it off specifically for something like the opening ceremony. But if you jump ahead to like the second, you’ll see that Trocadéro is gray, and then you can see over here, Concorde is just a big gray mess. Ultimately, it feels like they’re really working to keep the city as unencumbered by this as possible. To my eye, they might be doing a great job of it, but if you’re looking to get photos of let’s say the Eiffel Tower that you don’t want obstructed, then you should go check out the video that we made about taking great photos of monuments in Paris. But as we’ll see, even things in those areas don’t look that disrupted. And if we zoom out here and do a little bit of an overlay of my map from Paris in my pocket, you’ll see that there’s a lot of stuff, if not, most of my favorite things are nowhere near where all of this is going down. So, I mean, if you want to get away from the crowds… Where do you buy tickets? And afterwards, where do you find them? You can buy them on the official website. tickets.paris2024.org here remain in abundance of football/soccer tickets as of filming, and they’re making a variety of different sports available at a variety of different times. So check the website regularly. As of recording, you can still find great prices for day passes to the Paralympics, anywhere from €15 to €24, which gets you into a variety of events over the course of an entire day. You may buy your tickets online, but you still need an app to use them. There are more apps in this Olympics than you can shake a stick at. It should be its own event. I don’t know who’d get gold, but I definitely have an opinion on who might get bronze so far. The most popular one is the official Olympics app, which will keep you up to date with news and what’s going on. But if you’re actually attending the games, then you’re going to need the Olympics ticketing app, which you can’t use to buy tickets, but you can use and will need to use to display them to get into any events. As of last night, if you have your Olympic ticket on you, you don’t need a QR code to get to an Olympic event, which makes total sense. If you want to give or sell tickets to friends, you can do it directly within the ticketing app. It’s really easy. All you have to do is open the app and then the event in question, hit the transfer button and put in the phone number of the person that you’d like to send them to. It’ll text them a link, they accept it on the other side and it’s done just that easily. There’s also an official reselling app that we will link to below in case you would like to sell your tickets because you can’t make it or for any other. There are two merch locations that I found just by riding around town. One is Spot24 over by the Eiffel Tower, which also has a really cool art gallery going on inside. And then this guy, the official merch store is hanging out by the Grand Palais. So those are two that I know for sure, but I have a feeling you’re going toa be able to find merch wherever you go. I got this one at Spot24. Hey, you gotta buy a souvenir somewhere. The official website says that they are going to allow small umbrellas and plastic or metal water bottles up to 75 centiliters. So you can bring those in with you. A lot of the stadiums are set up outdoors and in direct sunlight, so make sure to wear a lot of sunscreen and stay hydrated. And be sure to give yourself extra time when crossing or exiting the city to attend an event. Any metro line servicing Olympic events are bound to be rammed with a predicted additional 500,000 people using the metro every single day. Whether or not that comes to pass, here’s what we know about public transportation during the Olympics. No metro lines are going to close completely during the Olympics. Only a few stations near Olympic sites. Those are: …which are going to affect lines 1, 8, 12, and 13 respectively. Those three that I just mentioned are all going to be closed until about September 21, so… Pont Marie on line 7 will be closed August 10 and 11… [fast forward] It gets really complicated, so we put screenshots of all the closures in a post below. They have been changing from time to time, so what I would recommend to stay up to date instead instead of looking at screenshots and trying to map this out is to download the app CityMapper and use that to map your way around the city. They usually have up to the minute updates on delays and clossures, and they’ll help you get around. It wouldn’t be France if we didn’t have at least one exception to a rule, and today’s exception would be July 26, the day of the opening ceremony, wherein there will be a rolling closure of more metro stations then you can shake a stick out. I would advise that on July 26 you do not rely on the metro after 1:00 p.m. if you need to get across town. Pick one side of the river and stick to it, as the majority of bridges in the center of town are going to be closed off, and all of them will be closed by 7:00 p.m. Ride bikes to get around more quickly and stroll about to check things out and soak up the vibe, but stick to the side of the river that you plan to sleep on just to be safe. According to the latest reports, the opening ceremony will not be available to be watched from the banks of the Seine for free as originally planned. They’ve reduced the number of spectators from 600,000 to around 300,000 people, and they will be closing the lower bank entirely. Roughly 100,000 of those attending will be ticket holders, and as of recording, there are still tickets available for an outlandish €2,700 each, which is why I’m not going. The remaining 220,000 or so people in attendance will be doing so by invitation only. So unless you happen to know somebody who has an apartment overlooking the Seine or you have the right connections to get a ticket for free, I’m afraid you’re going to have to watch it on tv. The insane cost of the opening ceremony isn’t the only jaw dropper the price of the metro is set to nearly double during the Olympics. The price hike starts on July 20 and doesn’t stop until September 8, and the only way around it is if you’re a resident, you live here, and you can get yourself a monthly Navigo pass. Even residents living here will have to pay the inflated individual ticket cost, which is why I’ll be loading up on my Navigo Easy for any guest visiting like my dad. Otherwise, there’s no way around this. I’ll also be riding my bike as much as possible. Because there’s so many apps involved in this ridiculous event, there is an Olympics specific travel app that will enable you to get unlimited travel for €16 a day or €70 per week. These prices are exorbitant, but unfortunately there is no real alternative. As a side note, the EDF Mobilités app is now available on iOS, which means that you can stock up on individual tickets or bundles of ten at a discounted price on your iPhone or your Android device, always being able to do that and then travel on your phone. This means if you download the app now, you can buy bundled tickets for the same discounted price as everyone else, as long as you do it before July 20. Even if you buy them after July 20, if you’re only using the metro once or twice per day, buying them at the discounted rate of €32 during the Olympics, which is again almost double the normal price, will still be the cheapest way. If you’re going to be riding a lot on the metro while you’re here, then getting unlimited travel through the Olympics travel app is going to be the cheapest if you plan to use the metro a lot and you don’t live here, then the Olympics travel app is for you. If you need a full rundown on how to use the metro while you’re in Paris, then you should check out the video we made right here. It’s a good deep dive, but we need to move on. Getting to and from the airports should remain the usual experience, for better or for worse, but one exciting update is that line 14 now serves Orly airport for only €10.30, which is amazing. The majority of you will probably be flying into Charles de Gaulle airport, which is serviced by the RER, which is infamous for its disruptions. But it should be running normally, so be sure to download CityMapper and check for any disruptions before you commit to buying a ticket for €11.80 as of filming, which will get you all the way into Paris and cover you for your transfer onto the metro. Taxis and Uber will be operating as usual, but as you can imagine, traffic is already bad enough in Paris without the ongoing restrictions from Olympic event sites around the city, so I would recommend avoiding it as much as possible. However, getting into the city from the airport, it’s not a bad way to go. Just remember to take taxis from the official taxi stands in the airport. Don’t go with some guy hanging out just outside a baggage claim who’s offering you a great deal. That’s how you get scammed. The price of lodging during the Olympics is set to be way above average, and during the Paralympics, also above average, but the period between them is set to be a little bit below average, so if you want to come last minute in between them, you should be able to find a place. Anecdotally, Airbnb rentals are also way down, and I would expect the prices being asked to follow suit. Almost all of Paris’ monuments will be available as usual during the Olympics. Only the Olympic sites themselves will be completely closed down unless you’re attending an event. Leading up to the opening ceremony, every bridge between Pont Austerlitz and Pont Iéna will progressively be closed down from July 15, predominantly to cars. You’ll still be able to get across by foot traffic, which also leads us to an interesting fact that I learned last night, which is that on Pont Alexandre III you will be able to get across on foot or by bike as long as there is not an actual Olympic event happening at the time. Museums on the periphery of the Olympic sites will remain open. Even the Eiffel Tower is only closing down on July 26 for the opening ceremony, and of course for the festivities on July 14, which side note, it’s pretty fun. They’re going to actually have an entire fireworks show in the colors of the Olympics this year. That’s cool. Trocadéro is the tricky one. Museum of man is set to be closed from July 20 till August 13, but the architecture museum will be open throughout the Olympics with the exception of the day before, of, and after the opening ceremony. It’s also located within a gray zone from July 18 to 23, so be sure to apply for your QR code and get your Pass Jeux, which is something that we will talk about here in a minute. From my reading of the map, the viewing platform at Trocadéro will be open to foot traffic after the opening ceremony, and I was able to directly confirm that with the tourism office last night. So you should be able to go up there to get your photos of you and the Eiffel Tower while the rings are still hanging from it. Most businesses and restaurants are planning to remain open throughout the Olympics, according to my friend Lindsey, who wrote an article on the piece in which she said many planned to take a break between the closing ceremony on August 11 and the start of the Paralympics on August 28. Links to all my sources below, including the one that let me know that all of the temporary terraces, the COVID terraces that are up right now, are allowed to be open all the way till midnight from July 1 until September 8. So expect the nightlife around here to get really good. You’ve probably heard a lot about QR codes, gray zones, red zones, everything at this point. And what you need to know is about the Pass Jeux. And what this is is basically a QR code that you can request that you will need during the lead up to the opening games. You’re only going to need it if you’re going into one of the gray or black areas, like if you have a reservation at a hotel, a museum or a restaurant. The thing is, you’re going to need to make your request in advance to get that pass, and it’s intense. You go to this website and there you’re going to have to upload a copy of your identity, tell them when and where you were born, and then upload proof of your reservation. It’s basically like applying for a visa, but just across the street. Otherwise, if you’re an Olympic ticket holder and you’re going to a stadium like the Trocadéro Gardens behind me, all you’re going to need is that Olympic ticket for the event. Don’t approach into the events and think you can get in without a ticket. They’re not going to be tourist sites, they’re like any sporting event, you gotta pay to get in. Also, during the lead up to the games, they are going to make special corridors for the major monuments that are affected. So like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Orangerie, Musee d’Orsay, those will have their own special corridors that visitors will be able to access without needing to get a QR code. I think they realized last minute that things are gonna get a little insane, and this is one of those fluid changes that got made. I just heard about it last night. No boat tours are going to be allowed to operate in the week leading up to the opening ceremonies. Otherwise all the tours that I recommend will be operating as usual. A lot of tour companies are suffering from a reduction in bookings thanks to the reduction in tourism over the Olympics and also because so many people are coming just for the Olympics and not to do anything else. So if you’d like to do a tour while you’re here, make sure to book in advance and grab a tour with one of the companies that I recommend. They’re all lovely. Most of them won’t be disrupted if affected at all by the Olympics, with the exception, of course, of the boat tours. And of course I’d like to help as many of them as I can. So if you’d like to book, go ahead and use one of the links that I have below and go directly to them right now. In my opinion, you should absolutely come to Paris for the Olympics. It’s going to be a festive environment and odds are good that tourism is going to be down thanks to all of the misinformation and fear mongering going on. It will be more expensive and there will be disruptions, but stumbling across the race is half the fun. What other time in your life is Paris going to be hosting something like this? It’s been exactly 100 years since the last time we hosted the games. Even if you don’t want to attend any events, what better time to wander around, check things out and soak up the vibe? And if you get my guide at parisinmypocket.com, you’ll have hundreds of recommendations for great food, coffee and drinks, in parts of the city that the average tourist will never find. Even the average Parisian doesn’t know where half of this stuff is. As of recording, the parts of the city that I enjoy most are shown on the official Paris disruption prediction map to have absolutely no disruption going on whatsoever. So if you want to come to Paris and you want to enjoy it like a local and get to the parts of the city the average Parisian doesn’t know while the entire world has its eyes on the boring part of the city, then there may be no better time than to come during the Paris Olympics in 2024. Come join us. We would love to have you. It’s gonna be a blast. And whether you’re coming for the first time or the dozenth, we’ve made a bunch of videos that’ll get you all the help you need, from riding the metro to ordering wine to how to get your Notre Dame fix while she’s still closed. I’m Jay Swanson, this has been Paris in my Pocket. Thank you so much for watching. Also, I highly recommend you don’t stand in the middle of the street to get this shot. But I’m not your mom. You do whatever you want.