Author

Chris Dunlop

I wrote a post about the dream of going to the Olympics and I have had a lot of people ask me what it was actually like to go to the Olympics!

So today, 2 months after returning home, I thought I would write a fun post, share some photos and give you a break from all of the Recession chat that is floating around at the moment.

The City of Merch

• Straight away you know there is an Olympics on. The rings on the Gare Du Nord are the first thing you see when you get off the train and it made me so happy!
• The merch is off the chain! You see countries everywhere and they are all decked out in the colours.
• The buildings are decorated in the rings
• There are 1,000 police officers on the streets

My favourite was all of the shops that had the little displays.

See the rings in the window!

The rings by the Sacre Coeur

Coke got amongst it in a big way.

It is hard to describe but it all just feels so happy!

Probably because the squad was keeping us so safe. There were 40,000 police officers in Paris and it was the most locked down the city had been since World War II.

I actually really liked having all of the security though, it made me feel so safe. In the past I have felt Paris to be a bit ruckus.

It was so French, on our first walk we saw hundreds of people dancing in a square to a live band. It honestly felt like I was on the Truman show.

Then of course we are in Paris, so there were so many of cafes and restaurants filled with people.

It was hard to capture the vibe on camera, but every cafe was playing the Olympics and so you would hear cheers as you were walking around

See there is the swimming on in the background!

People would stay out until well after midnight. I took this photo at 12:30pm by the Eiffel Tower.

The Americans definitely got the memo

My favourite was how subtle and understated the Americans were. It was so cool to see them adapt to the French culture.

... next minute

The rings

The quest to get this photo. The city was so locked down and difficult to move around, there were barriers everywhere, so it took a good 2 hours to walk in the 32 degree heat to get this photo.

And then I trekked back for the night shot.

From a photography point of view, I love photos that are iconic and represent a time and place. The rings are special to me because the only time you can photograph the Eiffel Tower like that is for that 2 week period.

They had the rings outside Mona Lisa's house as well.

Side note, I still don't get that pyramid aye.

I loved seeing the random uniforms of countries constantly throughout the city.

And the massive as billboards that they had everywhere that were all sports related.

The Irish Pubs were definitely the best for the vibes.

The Louis Vuitton store had the best merch collection

It wasn't all busy busy though, there were definitely some quiet moments that you would expect of Paris. Just typical high fashion and movie set like.

Some monuments had little subtle hints to the Olympics, this was my favourite.

The subway was all decked out and looked like a Wes Anderson movie.

Going to an event!

So I went to two athletics events, to watch the women's pole vault qualifiers and the final.

Man those Frenchies are loud as aye. I never knew that about them but they really know how to eat cheese, drink wine and scream like nutcases.

Athletics is a fun sport to watch live. There is honestly a hectic amount of stuff going on.

It's like alright

• Now we have a pole vaulter, hang on pause, no now we are doing the mens 100m hurdle qualifier, pause hang on, no lets go over to the triple jump, and watch out for the discus being biffed, and now we are doing a steeplechase where humans jump into water and we are back to the pole vault with the hectic loud French people, just in time for you to see the next triple jumper.

Repeat the above for 4 hours.

Thanks to Athletics NZ for decking me out in the full merch and I even got my own suitcase.

I only got asked one time what sport I played. I said weightlifting naturally.

Watching your friend compete is a whole other level of stress.

What did people do after the Olympics. Rave boats, obviously.

Shoutout to this guy who I watched everyday have breakfast.

And the winner of the most French person in the history of France goes to this guy.

And this guy with the biggest ever gangster lean on a bike I have ever seen.

And this guy who is basically in a movie scene. Shout out to the set designer for Paris aye, they really nailed the vibe.

I walked down the Champs Elysees!! HUGE MOMENT

And just like that, a bucket list item achieved.

I'd give the Olympics a solid 100/10 and would recommend it.

You know what though, Tom Cruise entering the Stade De France and Snoop Dogg in an equestrian outfit has got me so pumped for LA 2028.

See you there.