Iconic locations where Olympic events are held in Paris

French show jumper and reigning Olympic champion Penelope Leprevost poses in the Hall of Mirrors at the Chateau de Versailles – Copyright AFP AIZAR RALDES

Emilie BICKERTON

The Paris Olympics are designed to showcase the City of Light in all its splendor, with many events taking place in some of the most iconic locations.

AFP looks at five locations that will dazzle ticket holders and a global TV audience of billions during the 17-day spectacle starting July 26:

– Eiffel Tower –

Paris’s most famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower, welcomes one of the most popular Olympic events: beach volleyball.

The action will take place at a temporary location at the foot of the “Iron Lady”.

The Champs de Mars park at the foot of the tower hosts judo and wrestling.

When the Eiffel Tower was unveiled in 1889 by engineer Gustave Eiffel for the World’s Fair, it was reviled by Parisians. Since then it has become the crown jewel of the capital.

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

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

– Grand Palace –

Fencing and taekwondo battles will take place in the opulent surroundings of the Grand Palais art gallery, a glass and steel masterpiece created for the 1900 World’s Fair.

Its distinguishing feature is the beautiful glass dome roof, the largest of its kind in Europe, which covers a cavernous exhibition space of 13,500 square meters.

During the First World War, the Grand Palais preserved its art collection and converted the galleries into a military hospital where soldiers were patched up before returning to the trenches.

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

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

– Place de la Concorde –

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

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

The square’s harmonious name belies 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.

Paris’s largest square is defined by the enormous golden obelisk, one of two erected by Ramses II outside the temple at Luxor and given to Paris in 1830.

– Palace of Versailles –

The dressage and show jumping events will take place in the royal park of the Palace of Versailles, some 20 kilometers from 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 mile-long canal where his extravagant parties once took place, complete with sailing gondolas.

It has been a World Heritage Site since 1979 and is also a big favorite on the Paris tourist route.

– Marseille –

Not all events will take place in the capital.

Sailing competitions will take place in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, France’s boisterous, big-hearted second city, better known as the home of the Olympique Marseille football team.

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 powerful mistral wind of Marseille in their sails, which usually blows in winter and spring.

Marseille, which also hosts 10 football matches, was the place in France where the Olympic torch relay started on May 8.