5 iconic locations that will host the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, from the Eiffel Tower to Marseille

Judo and wrestling are organized in the Champ de Mars park at the foot of the tower.

When the Eiffel Tower was unveiled in 1889 by engineer Gustave Eiffel on the occasion of the World Exhibition in Paris, it was reviled by Parisians. Since then it has become the crown jewel of the capital.

Besides being one of the world’s top tourist attractions, attracting seven million visitors a year, it is also a working telecommunications tower, used for radio and television broadcasting.

The winners of the Paris Games will all go home with a small part of the iron colossus. Each medal contains a crumb of 18 grams of original iron, removed during various renovations, melted down and reforged.

2 The Great Palace

Fencing and taekwondo competitions take place in the opulent Grand Palais art gallery, a glass and steel masterpiece designed especially for the 1900 Paris World’s Fair.

The special feature of this museum is its beautiful glass dome roof, the largest of its kind in Europe, which covers an enormous exhibition space of 13,500 square meters.

During the First World War, the Grand Palais’s art collection was put into storage and the galleries were converted into a military hospital, where soldiers were treated before returning to the trenches.

In the 21st century, the airy ship has hosted giant installations commissioned by some of the world’s leading artists.

It has also been flooded to create the largest ice rink in the world.

3 Place de la Concorde

The vast cobbled square at the foot of the Champs-Elysees, where heads literally rolled after the French Revolution, will serve as an urban sports center.

Skateboarding, 3×3 basketball, BMX freestyle and, in the first edition of the Games, breakdancing, will all take place in the square, which sits across the Seine from the Invalides war museum where Napoleon is buried.

The harmonious name of the square hides a bloody past: King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette were among the hundreds of people beheaded there in 1793 during the reign of terror that followed the French Revolution of 1789.

4 Palace of Versailles

The dressage and show jumping events will take place in the Royal Park of the Palace of Versailles, some 20km from central Paris, which will also be part of the marathon circuit and where the cross-country and pentathlon events will take place.

Originally a hunting lodge, ‘Sun King’ Louis

The extensive palace gardens include a 1.5 kilometer long canal where his extravagant parties once took place, complete with sailing gondolas.

It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 and is also a favorite among tourists in Paris.

5 Marseille

Not all events will take place in the capital.

More than 300 sailors from around the world will compete in the sapphire blue waters of the Mediterranean east of the city, where a new marina has been built on the Corniche coastal road – one of France’s most beautiful routes.

However, they are unlikely to have the strong mistral wind of Marseille in their sails, as this wind normally only blows in winter and spring.

Marseille, which will also host 10 football matches, was the venue in France for the Olympic torch relay on 8 May.