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PARIS

How to visit the Olympic cauldron in Paris during the Paralympics

The floating hot-air balloon was a huge hit during the Olympic Games, and this time the cauldron is carrying the Paralympic flame. Here's how to get a slot and the best vantage points to see it without a ticket.

Published: 30 July 2024 12:24 CEST
Updated: 27 August 2024 12:53 CEST
How to visit the Olympic cauldron in Paris during the Paralympics
This photograph shows the Paris 2024 Olympic/Paralympic Games cauldron attached in the Jardin des Tuileries to a balloon with the Luxor Obelisk of the Place de la Concorde in background in Paris on July 28, 2024. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP)

After an audacious opening ceremony, France went above and beyond with the Olympic flame – lighting a vast cauldron that was attached to a hot air balloon floating over the Tuileries gardens in central Paris.

While the flame went away once the Olympics ended, it has returned for the Paralympics which will run from August 28th to September 8th.

The Paralympic torch will be housed at the Tuileries gardens from August 28th to September 7th, and possibly after if they city’s mayor gets her way.

The flame – which is not actually burning, but rather it is a type of optical illusion using a cloud of mist and LED lights to make it appear to be on fire – is carried in a cauldron attached to a floating hot-air balloon.

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During the daytime, it sits just above one of the pools in the Jardin des Tuileries, and at nighttime it floats up to 60m above the ground, making it visible from a long distance.

The balloon itself is a nod to the first flight in a hydrogen-filled balloon, which took off from the Jardin des Tuileries (where the flame is currently located).

READ MORE: How many of the French references did you get in the Olympics opening ceremony?

The floating flame – known as la vasque in French – has been a huge success, particularly once people found out that it is free to visit.

However, it is still required to reserve a time slot in advance.

Tickets

There will be an opportunity to see the torch being lit during the opening ceremony without advance registration, though you will want to arrive early. There will be standing-room space for 3,000 people by the Louvre, according to Le Parisien.

From August 29th, the site will once again be open from 10am to 7pm, and you will need to show a single-use QR code to enter. As the site is outdoors, Olympics organisers advise that people check the weather forecast before planning a visit.

Tickets can be booked online here – but be warned, they sell out fast. New booking slots will be added each day during the next opening period.

How can I see it without a ticket?

During the day, it might be hard to see the flame from outside the garden, but the hot-air balloon floats up to 60 metres in the sky at night. Take-off starts around sunset – although if the weather is bad the liftoff can be delayed or cancelled.

During the break between the Olympics and Paralympics the balloon may be taking off less frequently.

Once it is in the air, the flame is visible from “hundreds of metres away”, according to Olympics organisers.

Here are some suggestions for places that should give you a good view.

Rue de Rivoli and Place des Pyramides – If you have access to a balcony near the rue de Rivoli, then you would likely have a good view. You could also try the Place des Pyramides near the golden statue of Joan of Arc.

From Place du Carrousel – This is the traffic circle area located near the Louvre museum and its famous pyramid at the end of the Jardin des Tuileries. This spot will give you a great view directly through the gardens to the balloon, although it will likely be pretty crowded.

Atop the Arc de Triomphe – The Arc stays open every day until 11pm, though you need to purchase a ticket. From the roof of the Arc, you should get a good view of the flame.

From the Champs-Elysées – You’ll have to put yourself somewhere between the Arc de Triomphe and the Franklin D Roosevelt station, as the Place de la Concorde is being used as an Olympics venue. You can try this out, but you do risk having your view blocked partially by the stands.

Along the riverbank – If you go to the other side of the Seine, you could get a decent view of the flame from the Quai Anatole France or Quai Voltaire. 

Montmartre and Sacré-Coeur – You will certainly be moving away from the hot-air balloon, so it’ll appear smaller, but you should be able to make it out as you will get the full panorama of the capital from Sacré-Coeur. Consider bringing some binoculars.

Rooftops – This might be a good excuse for a night out at a nearby rooftop bar, or a shopping spree that involves climbing to the top of one of one of Paris’ many department stores (BHV Marais, Galeries Lafayette, Printemps) that offer panoramic views of the city. Though you might want to pack some binoculars.

Will it stick around after the Paralympics?

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told the France Bleu broadcaster that she hoped that the popular hot-air balloon could find a permanent home in Paris.

She had the same goal for the Olympic rings at the Eiffel Tower, as well as the statues of 10 French women that were part of the Olympics opening ceremony.

“We should explore possibilities for these three symbols,” Hidalgo said. “These three artistic, symbolic and magnificent objects deserve our full attention.”

Hidalgo acknowledged, however, that any decision to keep them on display was not hers alone “so I cannot promise today that they will stay”.

READ MORE: Paris wants to keep balloon and Olympic landmarks after Games

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CULTURE

How many of France’s ’10 most iconic women’ can you name?

Ten monumental golden statues representing French women from the worlds of art, literature, sport and politics are shortly to go on display in Paris - but how many of these famous names do you recognise?

Published: 18 September 2024 15:34 CEST
How many of France's '10 most iconic women' can you name?

They were one of the early highlights of the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, emerging from the River Seine near the Alexandre-III bridge as the flotilla of boats carrying international athletes passed.

Now golden status of the 10 famous women have been made and are on display in Cour d’honneur of the French National Assembly until October 5th, while more permanent homes for them are discussed. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo hopes to install them along rue de La Chapelle in the 18th arrondissement.

It will go some way towards closing that statuery gap – there are currently around 260 statues of men in the French capital, and just 40 women.

This temporary free exhibition will enable visitors to admire these polymer resin sculptures, created by 3D printing and designed to withstand the elements, by registering in advance on the Assemblée nationale website.

But, who are the women they celebrate and honour? Some might be familiar to international readers while others are barely known outside France.

Christine de Pizan (1364-1431) 

The oldest of the inspirational women remembered at the Olympic Games’ Opening Ceremony by some distance.

De Pizan was France’s first woman of letters, the first woman to earn a living as a writer. 

She started her career in the court of King Charles VI, following the deaths of her father and husband in rapid succession, leaving the family – she had three children – without a traditional source of income.

Her works were forgotten for several centuries, but resurfaced in the 1980s thanks to the rise of feminist studies – and, today, she is revered as one of history’s earliest feminists. Her most famous work, La cité des dames (The City of Ladies), clinically dismantles patriarchal discrimination and misogyny.

Jeanne Barret (1740-1807)

Explorer and botanist Barret was born into poverty in rural Burgundy – and went on to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe, while working as a ‘valet’ to doctor and botanist Philibert Commerson. 

At the time, the French navy banned women from their vessels, so she had to undertake the journey around the world in disguise, and was known as Jean. Her tireless work – she took charge of an expedition in Brazil when Commerson was unfit to work – earned her the respect of the crew and the expedition’s captain Louis-Antoine de Bougainville.

She and Commerson kept her true identity – and their relationship – secret for a year. In fact, such was his respect for her that Bougainville, after whom the botanist had named a plant, later wrote to King Louis XVI and requested that she be honoured with the title femme extraordinaire.

Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793)

Playwright, activist, abolitionist, disheartened revolutionary – feminist icon de Gouges is best known for her  Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen), written in scathing response to the Revolutionary Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen and demanding full legal, political and social assimilation of women.

She also wrote in favour of the abolition of slavery, and was initially in favour of the 1789 Revolution – but grew disenchanted by the lack of progress of women’s rights in its aftermath. 

De Gouges was executed by guillotine in 1793, after writing repeated literary attacks on the regime and leader Maximilien Robespierre.

Louise Michel (1830-1905)

If ever you see anarchists raise a black flag during a protest, remember Louise Michel – the teacher, anarchist and leading light of the Paris Commune, a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris from 18th March to 28th May, 1871.

She was transported to Nouvelle-Caledonie in punishment for her role in the Commune. There, she took up the plight of the indigenous Kanak people, taking their side in a revolt in 1878. 

In 1880, amnesty was granted to those who had participated in the Paris Commune. Michel returned to Paris, her revolutionary passion undiminished. And she proudly waved a black flag at a jobless demonstration in Paris in March 1883 – it is, historians say, the first use of the modern anarchists’ symbol.

Alice Guy (1873-1968)

French cinema remembers the Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis. It remembers the visionary Georges Méliès, and early directors Marcel Pagnol and Jean Renoir – the son of the artist. And it honours Godard, Truffaut and Rohmer. The list of male cineastes in France is long.

Alice Guy routinely gets lost in the shuffle. She shouldn’t. She was the first woman to direct a film – La Fée aux choux in 1896; one of the first to make a movie with a distinct narrative; and, for a decade between 1896 to 1906, was probably the only female filmmaker in the world.

Guy was a cinema pioneer in many ways. She experimented with Gaumont’s Chronophone sync-sound system, colour-tinting, interracial casting, and special effects. 

Her Hollywood film A Fool and His Money – made with a wholly African-American cast – is considered to have historical and aesthetic significance and is preserved at the National Center for Film and Video Preservation at the American Film Institute.

And her 1906 33-minute film La vie du Christ, which tells the story of Jesus Christ in 25 tableaux based on the gospels, is sometimes cited as the first ‘epic’ movie. As was the case with many Guy  films, it was for a long time wrongly attributed to Victorin Jasset – her assistant in charge of directing exterior scenes and managing the extras.

Alice Milliat (1884-1957)

There’s still a vast distance to travel, but women’s sport might not even be where it is today without Milliat. 

While noted misogynist Pierre de Coubertin – he once famously said that a woman’s role at the Olympic Games should be to crown the winners – gets all the Olympic glory, Milliat was responsible for getting the men-only club to, finally, allow women to compete.

She founded the Fédération Française Sportive Féminine in 1917. She helped organise the 1922 Women’s World Games – which were originally called the Jeux Olympiques Féminins and which ran for four editions until 1934, and which prompted the International Olympic Committee to slowly and belatedly allow female competition.

She also managed a French women’s association football team that toured the United Kingdom in 1920. In 2021, a commemorative statue of Milliat was unveiled at the French Olympic Committee’s headquarters in Paris.

Paulette Nardal (1896-1985)

Journalist, activist, woman of letters and pioneer of ‘black intellectualism’, Nardal, who was born in Martinique, was also the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne.

In October 1931, she founded the journal La Revue du Monde Noir (Review of the Black World) with her sisters; French novelist Louis Jean Finot; Haitian scholar Léo Sajous; and Clara W Shepard, an African-American teacher and translator. 

On her return to Martinique in 1944, Nardal founded Le Rassemblement féminin. Le Rassemblement féminin, one of two feminist organisations at the time whose goals were to increase the number of women who voted in the 1945 elections.

Then, from 1946 to 1948 Nardal was a delegate to the United Nations, working with both the UN Department for Non-Autonomous Territories and the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)

De Beauvoir’s 1949 work The Second Sex is considered a “trailblazing work in feminist philosophy”, and is a foundation work of modern feminism. 

But she considered herself a writer rather than a philosopher. She won the 1954 Prix Goncourt, the 1975 Jerusalem Prize, and the 1978 Austrian State Prize for European Literature, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1961, 1969 and 1973.

More controversially, she lost a teaching job amid accusations of inappropriate behaviour and she and long-time partner Jean-Paul Sartre campaigned for the release of people convicted of child sex offences.

Simone Veil (1927-2017)

Simone Veil survived Auschwitz and later Bergen-Belsen and went on to become one of France’s most respected politicians, steering through landmark laws to liberalise contraception and abortion.

She is best known for leading the successful campaign to legalise abortion in France – despite vicious abuse and threats – as the country’s first female minister of health in 1975. 

Veil later became the first female president of the European Parliament, where she served for three years, before returning to work for the French government again.

She was given an honorary damehood from the British government, and awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion D’Honneur in France. She died in 2017, and became just the fourth women to be interred in the Parthenon, after scientist Marie Curie, and two resistance fighters Genevieve de Gaulle-Anthonioz and Germaine Tillion.

In 2021, Josephine Baker was also honoured at the Parthenon, nearly half a century after her death.

Gisèle Halimi (1927-2020)

“Politics is too serious a matter to be left to men alone.” Tunisian-born lawyer, feminist activist and co-founder of equality movement Choisir la cause des femmes said that in 1978. 

In early 1972, a year after Choisir was founded, Halimi successfully defended a teenager who was on trial for illegally aborting a pregnancy after she had been raped in the Parisian suburb of Bobigny.

The teenager’s mother and three others were also charged with conspiring to commit the illegal abortion.

It was a landmark case that paved the way for Simone Veil to persuade France’s parliament to legalise abortions in France two years later.

In 1981, Halimi was elected as an MP, where she was a vociferous campaigner for the abolition of the death penalty, and tabled bills promoting women’s rights.

Four years later, she was appointed Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of France to UNESCO, and, in 1989, she was appointed special advisor to the French delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York.

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