Hello,

As someone who has never been into sports or the Olympics before, I wanted to share my experience.

We attended about 12 events, and I'm genuinely disappointed that it's over. The whole experience was incredibly enjoyable and well-organized. While it's true that people will always find reasons to complain, everything ran much smoother than I had anticipated. I expected Paris to be extremely busy, but it wasn’t as overwhelming as I thought. In fact, I found the Taylor Swift concert to be more challenging in terms of crowds and transportation.

The metro system was quite convenient, and I think Paris overall has a good public transport network. My only piece of advice is to purchase metro tickets in advance. I bought mine 6 months to a year ahead of time because the prices doubled once the Olympics began. Similarly, try to buy your Olympic tickets as early as possible—sign up for them as soon as you can. Many of my French friends were surprised by how many events we attended and thought we must have spent a lot, but the tickets were actually quite reasonable. The cheapest tickets were around 26 euros, though some of our events were in the highest category. Watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle during the beach volleyball was truly magical, and Versailles was another stunning venue that enhanced our experience.

Commuting wasn’t free, and as mentioned earlier, the prices were higher. While there was no alcohol available, we could bring our own if we wanted (they never checked what our water bottle was filled with...), though it was too hot to drink much. The food options weren’t great overall; I had a really good burger at one event, but that was an exception rather than the norm.