In 2024 Paris hosts the biggest sporting event of them all – the Olympic Games. For sports fans in the UK, this is a great opportunity to revive those memories of London 2012, or just be part of a sporting spectacle in one of the world’s greatest cities. You could be there in just a few hours with LeShuttle.
When is the 2024 Olympics?
The Paris Olympics will be held from Friday 26 July to Sunday 11 August 2024. Paris last hosted the summer Olympics in 1924, so will become the first city to hold the Games exactly 100 years apart.
Where is the 2024 Olympics being held?
The 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games is taking place mainly in the city of Paris and its suburbs. Some events are being held in other parts of France, such as Lille and Marseille. Cities across France will host football. One event will even be held many thousands of miles from mainland France, in the South Pacific Ocean! The tiny village of Teahupo’o, on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti, is a place of big waves and will host the surfing.
Not everything is happening in France. The surfing is in Tahiti!
The opening ceremony
The opening and closing ceremonies are always special events, but those for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games are set to be unique. For the very first time the opening ceremonies are being held outside of a stadium and within the city itself. Athletes from the competing nations will proceed in boats along the river Seine, watched by up to 600,000 spectators, for whom the ceremony will be free to attend. The Place du Trocadéro will host the ceremonial aspects of the opening ceremony. It will be a momentous spectacle, and is sure to get the Games off to an unforgettable start.
The Olympic and Paralympic venues
The vision of the International Olympic Committee is to bring the Games to the people of Paris, so many of the venues are right in the heart of the city. Any could feature in a whistlestop tour of Paris, but like you’ve never seen them before!
Champs de Mars will be transformed into the venue for beach volleyball
Transforming the city’s landmarks
There is no greater symbol of Paris than the Eiffel Tower, and it will overlook one of the most picturesque venues for the Games. The Champs de Mars stadium hosts the beach volleyball competition during the Olympics and blind football at the Paralympics. The grand Alexandre III bridge, built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, will bring the Games to life in the city centre and witness the finish of the marathon swimming, triathlon and cycling time trials.
Just over the bridge, Place de la Concorde will be transformed into a venue for the urban sports – skateboarding, BMX freestyle, 3x3 basketball and the new Olympic event of breaking. Spectators can see fencing and taekwondo at the Grand Palais, and archery at the magnificent green space of the Esplanade des Invalides. If you’re a fan of Emily in Paris, you will know these locations well!
The Grand Palais is the venue for fencing and taekwondo
Olympic & Paralympic venues in Paris
The pavilions in the 15th arrondissement built for the Paris Expo of 1900 will become the South Paris Arena complex, one of the major hubs of the Games. They host the table tennis, volleyball, weightlifting and handball at the Olympics, and boccia and para table tennis during the Paralympics.
The iconic orange clay courts of the Roland Garros tennis stadium hosts not only Olympic tennis and Paralympic wheelchair tennis, but also Olympic boxing. To the north of the city, Port de La Chapelle Arena is a new sporting and cultural hub which will host badminton and rhythmic gymnastics, para badminton and para powerlifting.
The Île-de-France region
Events are taking place at several venues outside the metropolitan region of Paris, but still close to the city. Perhaps the most incredible venue is the Palace of Versailles, where the beautiful parkland will be the scene of the equestrian events.
Horses will canter, jump and dance around Versailles as it hosts the equestrian events
To the north of Paris, the Stade de France will become the Olympic Stadium, hosting the athletics. Close by in Saint-Denis, the Aquatics Centre (artistic swimming, diving, water polo) is one of only two permanent sports facilities to be built for the Games.
Competition venues throughout France
It is not just Parisians who can catch the Olympics. Further afield in France, you can watch handball and basketball in Lille – just an hour and a half’s drive from our Calais terminal. At the other end of the country, Marseille hosts the sailing events. If football is your thing, matches take place at major stadiums at cities across the country, including Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nice and Saint-Étienne.
How to get tickets for the Paris 2024 Olympics
If you want to buy tickets for events at the Games, there are still some available. Tickets for remaining events are on sale from the Paris 2024 ticketing website.
Even if you don’t have a ticket, there are free events to attend, such as the opening ceremonies, marathons and road cycling.
It’s not every year that the Olympics is happening so close to the UK. Your trip to the Paris Olympics 2024 can start with LeShuttle, and a 35-minute crossing from Folkestone to Calais. From there it is only a three and a half hour drive to the Olympic city.
We expect demand for LeShuttle services during the Olympic Games to be very high. So on your marks, set, go!