On to post #2 for the Paris Olympics talking about the vibes, the events, and the city. We were pleasantly overwhelmed by the amazing vibe of the city and the atmosphere surrounding the games! Everyone was so friendly and having the best time ever! Below are some of the highlights outside of the actual sporting events.
- Pin Trading: I had read a bit about pin trading online before we got to the games and it ended up becoming one of the highlights! Basically, Olympic pins have been around for decades and you trade them with other attendees. We got a few of the official pins online at a discount before the games and that is what we used to trade mostly. I even got some pins from my Dad when he went to the Calgary winter Olympics. Of course, those I didn’t actually trade. We got to meet so many different people, from an Olympic Torch bearer, people that have attended 5+ games, and people from all over the world. Also, we got pins from various sponsor booths throughout the games. For example, Samsung was giving a bunch of pins away if you did a scavenger hunt around Paris. Think, Pokémon Go, but for pins.
- 2) Country Hospitality Houses: At the Olympics, often many countries will sponsor their own “house”. This is a space where you can go for free or for a fee to watch that country’s games, meet people, and have some local food and sometimes partake in various activities. I read about this online in one of the Facebook groups I was in and it was really awesome! I think I lost track of the number of country houses that we went to, but we had a great time. I would say some of the highlights was the Dutch Hospitality house, France, and Mexico. You can see some of the photos below. It was really helpful to be in the Facebook groups to see the various locations and details. At the Netherlands house in the evening of course they had a DJ and it was one big party!
- 3) The Credit Card Lounge: We are Chase card owners and we found out with Ryan’s card that we would get free access to one of the lounges. The lounge is actually a boat off the Seine river in city center where you could go every day, have a free cocktail, enjoy the views, watch the games, and have something to eat. They also did a champagne toast at 5pm every day. The lounge was packed with Americans. As mentioned above, the US doesn’t have much of a Hospitality House like other countries (entrance is like $300) so this was a really fun place to meet other Americans and felt basically like an American house. We also met up with some friends here that were also in town for the Olympics. Unfortunately, we forgot to get a photo.
- 4) Olympics Parks: Not sure that is the correct terminology, but there were several watching areas from around town for the Olympics! The one at the Champ De Elysees in from of the Eiffel tower was quite the party when we arrived after France won a top volleyball match and everyone was celebrating!
5) not sure it totally fits into an above category specific for the Olympics, but Paris was so clean, well organized, incredible staff, and we enjoyed having coffee in the morning at a terrace and enjoying really good French food in the evening.
❤️Melanie
Smiles from Miles Away 