A few months ago, the advice would have been to avoid August in Paris like a plague of bedbugs. Hotel and Airbnb prices were through the roof, the Louvre hiked its entrance prices by almost 30 per cent, and Metro fares were soon to double . The city was set to become a giant, sweaty, and rather expensive game of sardines.
Metro and Louvre aside, amid plummeting accommodation rates, August looks to be an unusually affordable time to visit the Olympic and Paralympic host city. The mass bookings predicted for the Games have fallen short of expectations and hotels that had blocked rooms at inflated prices are now offering those same rooms at much more reasonable rates. It isn’t hard to find a decent room in the city centre for less than £200 per night.
Even getting there may not cost the Earth: Air France is set to lose custom during the Olympics, reporting a predicted loss of €180m as customers look elsewhere during the games. Perhaps visitors have chosen a greener mode of transport, or perhaps it’s because almost two thirds of Olympics tickets have been bought by people living in France, but Paris 2024 doesn’t appear to be drawing in the crowds of foreign visitors that were seen during London’s 2012 tenure. It’s not the number of medals GB won, or a specific sporting event, that stands out from London 2012, though, but the atmosphere all over the city.
Whether you had tickets to an event or not, London positively hummed with happiness. Strangers even smiled at each.