We are traveling to Paris from June 28 - July 2 '24. What is the best way to track all the closures before the Olympics as they build things out in the city?
We are trying to plan what we can/ cannot see eg Louvre/ Eiffel (up on the tower)/ etc. We also want to do Seine River cruise and they seem to be allowing the reservations.
In addition, are there any recommendations of areas to not stay in because of the Olympics setup time?
Thanks!
To me it's almost impossible to find your way around this stuff unless you have a very specific understanding of where you want to be when, but the information is supposedly here (in French, I didn't find an English option although I would think it would be there. Otherwise, run whatever you are interested in through Google Translate.)
Hi Kim - we just got back from 10 days in Paris. We had a great time but you definitely cannot avoid that the Olympics are coming to Paris. It is a bit unreal to experience the main city at this point. Everything is under constructions. Massive structures of stadium seating for going up by Place de la Concorde, Eiffel Tower, etc. You can still get most anywhere but there may be times when various Metro stops etc may be closed as everything is being cleaned up and modernized where needed. If you have an app like Bonjour RATP or Paris Metro, you will always be told what is closed and provided with routes to get where you want.
I looked at France 24 on the web for Paris news to keep aware of any issues. At the time you are going, you should be able to visit most anything but please make sure to make reservations ahead! Places like the Louvre allow you make reservations about 3 months ahead. Also, going as early in the day as possible is good. I had a 9 am reservation at the Louvre and basically had one wing to myself the first hour. By 11am however the main area was so crowded, I chose to go elsewhere.
Another interesting experience I had compared to a similar trip a year ago was that I could basically pay for anything using Apple Pay on my phone. I was definitely using tapping credit cards a year ago but this year, I didn't even have to take my cards out.
We did a river cruise and there are should be no problems with the Seine being open when you are there.
Someone sent me this link to a New York Times article two days ago about security planning for the Olympics. It sounds amazing but I would definitely think that staying anywhere along the Seine would not be a good idea, if anything is actually open. I know where I stayed in the 7th was already cautioning that taxi reservations would be next to impossible in the summer.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/27/world/europe/paris-olympics-2024-security-opening-ceremony.html
Our trip was still wonderful, we saw everything we wanted following Rick's general guidelines, including a visit to Versailles. People were wonderful as always, restaurants are open and the food as always is great. The French just adapt as needed and that is the way to go. :) So, just go with an open mind that none of those sites you see may look as they did a few years ago but isn't it fun to see how a city prepares for such a massive event. :)
Judy
Judy and Kim, Thank you so much for the details. And the links.
“Another interesting experience I had compared to a similar trip a year ago was that I could basically pay for anything using Apple Pay on my phone. I was definitely using tapping credit cards a year ago but this year, I didn't even have to take my cards out.”
Apple Pay has been a payment option in Paris and the rest of France or even Europe, for many years already. It became an option to use when the new “tap” payment terminals were introduced years ago.
When you tap your card, the payment terminal reads the NFC chip in your credit card. When you use Apple Pay, the payment terminal reads the NFC chip in your phone or watch. The information on the NFC chip is the only thing the payment terminal cares about. It doesn’t care where that NFC chip is housed in. Technically you could implant a NFC chip in your arm, load your credit card info on it, and pay for things by tapping your arm.
Why am I explaining this? Because there seem to be some misunderstandings about the acceptance of Apple Pay. By EU regulation, all payment terminals in the EU must be able to read NFC chips. This became mandatory years ago already and all payment terminals should have been replaced by new ones years ago.
So, since Apple Pay uses the NFC chip, this means that you can use Apple Pay in every place that accepts the credit card you linked to your Apple Pay account. If you’ve linked an Amex credit card and the local shop in France doesn’t accept Amex, you can’t use Apple Pay. Not because they don’t accept Apple Pay, but because they don’t accept Amex. Likewise they wouldn’t accept it if you tapped your actual Amex credit card at the machine.
So make sure to link a broadly accepted credit card to your Apple Pay, like Visa or Mastercard, and you can happily tap your way through Europe.
