The opening ceremony held on boats floating down the Seine sounds quite interesting. But, holding some swimming portions in the Seine is quite cool. One of the many things I loved about London 2012 was how they incorporated the city into the Olympics. It looks like Paris has the same idea. I definitely think it’s going to be a very good Olympics and hopefully no Covid issues.
What I’ve seen of how they’re planning this looks fantastic - really showing off Paris and the environment there.
I was in Paris in January 2020 and came back and wanted to plan a trip with my nieces the summer they turn 16. Only that’s 2024, so it’s not happening them. I’m currently aiming for the summer after that, if possible.
The Paris organisers are aiming high, they want to sell ten million tickets. And why not? An Olympiad in Western Europe, in a city that already gets millions of tourists and post-Covid pent up demand could make Paris one of the best Olympics ever.
And for those of you planning to visit Paris:
Swimming in the river in Paris? That would just be… Crazy? Lunatic? What’s the word I’m looking for, here?
Ha! That took me a bit
I presume the joke is
in Seine => in sane
But I’ve always pronounced it “sen”, which AFAIK is closer to the French pronunciation. Is pronouncing it “sane” more common than I thought?
I thought Seine rhymed with rain.
Once the Olympics allowed water sports in Brazil despite the pollution (apparently none of them visited the place beforehand), then anything goes
There’s a type of fishing net called a “seine” which rhymes with “cane” or “brain”, but the river is pronounced “Senn” like “hen” or “then”.
I was in Paris 2 years before the Olympics, and there was some kind of training exercise with 30 people swimming in the river. They were in full drysuits/rescue suits, but they were just swimming on the surface, no scuba gear or snorkel, so they were getting plenty of river water in their mouths.