My Olympic return to Paris

Upon seeing the Olympic opening ceremony in Paris back in August (yeah it’s taken me a while to write this post), I decided I wanted to go and see some of the games. I read an article saying tickets were still available for the Olympics, so I quickly went to see what I could get. Ultimately, I got tickets for Taekwondo, boxing, and water polo for the final weekend of the Olympics.

It was tricky finding somewhere to stay because it was fairly last-minute. We spent most of the day scouring hotel websites in the area of the venues for accessible rooms. I even contacted an accessible travel company to see what they could offer me. But in the end, we went with an accessible AirBnB place.

Accommodation

The place in question was a hotel called O’ Lord, just around the corner from the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe. It’s in a great location!

They had an accessible ground-floor room called Lovelace. It consisted of an open-plan kitchen/dining/living area and a bedroom with a double bed. There was also an accessible bathroom with a roll-in shower and accessible toilet.

A couple of days before we went, we discovered that the double bed was not high enough off the floor to accommodate my mobile hoist underneath it. We expressed this concern to the host, who said they could add another single bed to the room. The hoist fits under the single bed with no problem.

However, with both beds in the room, there was not enough space to manoeuvre the mobile hoist, so the staff moved the single bed into the living area, which was where I slept for the weekend. It worked well.

The hotel had great air conditioning in general, which was a refreshing contrast to the sweltering streets outside.

The staff was very friendly and helpful. They wanted to do everything they could to help us have a pleasant stay, which was greatly appreciated.

There is a lift just inside the front doors that takes you up to the lobby, and the accessible room I stayed in is on that floor.

What I did

Olympics

Taekwondo

On Saturday morning, I had tickets for Taekwondo, which began at about 9 AM and lasted until about 12 PM. This was in the Grand Palais, which was indeed a very grand building. It has a big glass domed roof with steel supports and a cavernous space inside where the taekwondo was held.

The Grand Palais was about a 20-minute walk from my hotel, so it was easy to get to. All we needed to do was walk straight down the Champs-Élysées.

The venue’s interior was blissfully air-conditioned, unlike the 35°C heat outside. It was a little bit chilly inside, but it was a welcome change from the sweltering streets.

The wheelchair access was good. I entered the building through a ramped walkway, and they had built big temporary stands inside for the audience. The accessible seating had a good view in front of the stand. I sat behind the photographers and can’t complain about the positioning.

The accessible toilet was on the floor above, and we had to go up the lift to get to it and through some of the back corridors. But they seemed to have a few accessible toilet cubicles in the main toilet room, which everybody used.

Boxing

I also had tickets for the boxing on Saturday evening at Roland Garros Stadium. This place is usually used for tennis, but they converted it to boxing at the end of the games.

Roland Garros proved more challenging to get to. With the Grand Palais, we could walk because it was only about 20 minutes by foot from our hotel. But Roland Garros was a 30-minute drive, or so we thought.

We got an accessible taxi from G7, a company with a large fleet of accessible taxis. The main problem was the traffic and the fact that the police blocked some of the roads around the stadium. The taxi driver wanted to go one way, but the police wouldn’t let him. So he had to turn around and go around another way, which added another half an hour to our journey. We arrived late, so we missed some of it.

When we finally arrived, we went to our seats close to the ring. It was hot and stuffy inside the stadium, much different from the air-conditioned Grand Palais. Several boxing matches were taking place, including some gold medal matches. It was a good night for Uzbekistan, as they won a couple of gold medals.

They played loud music between the matches, and people danced, so it was like a party atmosphere. But it was very loud and hot, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did Taekwondo.

This session finished at about midnight, and we tried to get a taxi back to the hotel. This was easier said than done.

G7, the taxi company, has an app similar to Uber’s. But it wasn’t easy to get the taxi to where we were. For some reason, they usually park a few streets away. We kept trying to contact them, but we couldn’t get through to them on the phone, and then they would get fed up after a while and drive off.

We asked a French policeman for help. He phoned the taxi company on his own phone and managed to get through to them and order us a taxi. Eventually, it came, and we returned to our hotel in the early hours of the morning.

Arc de Triomphe

I also visited the Arc de Triomphe because I wanted to go to the top. I previously visited Paris in 2015, and I wasn’t aware that you could go to the top of the arc.

There is a lift for people with mobility problems that can take them to the top of the monument.

The first problem, however, was getting to the arc, as it’s in the middle of a roundabout with about eight lanes of traffic going around it.

There is a tunnel pedestrians can take to get to the middle, but it’s not wheelchair accessible. So, the safest way to get there is to get a taxi to drop you off in the middle. But because my hotel was a 5-minute walk from the Arc de Triomphe, it’s not worth paying for a taxi to take me there.

So, after deliberating for a while on the best way to do it, we decided to wait for a lull in the traffic and then leg it across!

The traffic can be pretty dense and chaotic around there, but now and then, it clears, and if you time it right, you can rush across to the other side. This is precisely what we did!

Disabled people can get in for free if they have a disability card. I got in for free without a card, but my wheelchair was probably sufficient proof of my disability. My carer, however, had to pay €20 to enter.

The entrance door to the monument had three steps up to it, but they had a portable ramp, so this was no problem. I was then led to a lift that took me up to the middle floor, where an exhibition was being held. From there, I was led to another lift, which took me up to the top, where people could walk around and admire the view.

On the viewing level, the floor is flat, with a raised walkway around the edge, about a foot off the ground, where people can stand and get a better view. A couple of ramps go up to the raised walkway for wheelchair users. There is no lip or rail around the inside edge of this walkway, so I had to be careful not to fall off.

We were up there in the evening and only had about half an hour before we had to go because they were closing. But seeing the Eiffel Tower covered in flashing lights and shining a spotlight around like a lighthouse was nice.

Conclusion

This was my first time abroad since 2019 due to Covid, and it was a welcome return to travelling for me. The accommodation was excellent, and it was great to experience some of the Olympics. Travelling around the city was generally not a problem, apart from the taxis not stopping where we wanted them to. So I look forward to returning.