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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

How to watch the Paris Paralympic Games on TV in France

For the second time this summer, Paris is gearing up to host the world’s best athletes as the Paralympics gets under way. Here is how to tune in from France.

Published: 21 August 2024 13:21 CEST
Updated: 28 August 2024 08:14 CEST
The Paralympic Games logo on the Arc de Triomphe
The Paralympic Games logo on the Arc de Triomphe. (Photo by Andrej ISAKOVIC / AFP)

For two glorious weeks in August, France basked in the Olympic Games – and the good news is that we get to do it all over again at the end of the month when Paris hosts the 2024 Paralympic Games (August 28th to September 8th).

There are several ways sports fans can catch the action.

Fan Zones

Big screens and fan parks that were open during the Olympic Games will show events from the Paralympics, including the Parvis de l’Hôtel de Ville, which can accommodate up to 2,500 people, and has two giant screens to follow the competitions.

READ ALSO What you need to know about the Paris Paralympics

Club France, meanwhile, at the Grande Halle de la Villette, allows fans to celebrate with medallists and enjoy action on a big screen. 

And, in neighbouring Seine-Saint-Denis, Parc Georges Valbon, in La Courneuve, has a giant 80m2 screen showing live events throughout the Paralympic Games,

Several of France’s big cities will also have fan zones – including Marseille which will host a fan zone at their ‘Club 2024 de Provence’ at the Hôtel du Département.

You can find other fan zones and activities using this interactive map.

Likewise sports bars and cafés around France are likely to show action from the Games on TV.

READ ALSO 11 apps to use in Paris during the Paralympics

On TV

But if you prefer to remain at home, lots of TV coverage is planned. You can see the full schedule for the Games here.

The opening ceremony on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and Place de la Concorde will be screened on free-to-air channel France 2, from 8pm on Wednesday, August 28th.

READ MORE: What you need to know about the Paralympics opening ceremony in Paris

The closing ceremony that will signal the end of the Paris 2024 extravaganza, will also be on France 2 from 8.30pm on Sunday, September 8th. 

Director Thomas Jolly – the brains behind the Olympic Games ceremonies – is in charge of both shows again.

In fact, broadcaster France Televisions, which runs the France 2, France 3 and France 4 channels, and the france.tv online platform will show wall-to-wall Paralympic Games coverage. 

France 2 and France 3 will broadcast the Paralympic competitions live every day and alternately, between 9.30am and 11.25pm. 

READ ALSO How to get tickets for the Paris Paralympics

All the events will also be broadcast on the dedicated digital channel France TV Paris 2024, allowing viewers to follow their favourite sports and athletes. A live chat Fan Zone will be available to comment in real time and ask questions to the presenters.

For late-shift workers and night-owls highlights of the competition will be rebroadcast during the night, before the live broadcast returns in the early morning.

Meanwhile, pay-TV broadcaster Eurosport – available through the Max app, or to Canal Plus sport pack subscribers – will also broadcast Paralympic events all day every day, often covering events not necessarily showing on the main France Televisions channels.

READ ALSO Your guide to getting around Paris during the Paralympics

Keep in mind that these options will mostly show coverage in French. 

If you want to watch with English commentary, you can try to watch some of the foreign broadcasters (subject to rights and accessibility) such as the UK’s Channel 4, Ireland’s RTE or the USA’s NBC.

You can find the list of TV channels across the world who will show Paralympics coverage HERE, and you can check out the official Paralympics Youtube channel HERE.

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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

France bids final farewell to Olympics with Champs-Elysees parade

France bid a final and reluctant farewell to the Paris Olympics on Saturday with a parade on the Champs-Elysees followed by a concert featuring artists from the opening and closing ceremonies.

Published: 15 September 2024 09:40 CEST
France bids final farewell to Olympics with Champs-Elysees parade

The final event of an acclaimed summer of sport saw tens of thousands of fans gather on the French capital’s most famous avenue to applaud and cheer the nation’s new sporting heroes.

Around 70,000 people gathered for the parade featuring athletes, volunteers and public sector workers, which was followed by a multi-artist concert on a spectacular stage around the Arc de Triomphe.

“Saying thanks, not just to the athletes but to everyone who made these games magic, I think it’s fabulous,” said France’s most-decorated track athlete, Marie-Jose Perec, who lit the cauldron at the start of the Games on July 26.

“It’s a beautiful way of saying goodbye because everything must come to an end and tonight it will all be over,” the visibly emotional 200m and 400m triple gold medallist told reporters as she arrived.

Around 4,000 police were called out for a final test, having won almost almost unanimous praise for the way they kept around 12 million ticket holders for the Olympics and Paralympics safe.

After months of gloom and self-doubt in the run-up to the start of the Olympics, Parisians and the country at large threw themselves into the spirit of the Games once the sport began.

They embraced new champions such as triple gold medal-winning swimmer Leon Marchand while finding fresh reasons to celebrate veterans such as judoka Teddy Riner who won his fourth Olympic title.

“Thank you, thank you, it’s been incredible!” Riner shouted to the cheering crowd.

He, Marchand and Rugby Sevens star Antoine Dupont were among more than 100 French medal winners who were awarded the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest civilian award, in a ceremony at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe led by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The French team finished the Olympics with a record medals haul of 64, including 16 golds, securing fifth place on the international table.

The Paralympic Games from August 28-September 8 were hailed as “the most spectacular ever” by the head of the International Paralympic Committee, Andrew Parsons.

Escapism

Analysts say the Games served as a form of escapism for many French people worried about the direction of the country as well as generating a rare form of national union and pride.

“Everything worked, everything functioned and French people rediscovered the virtues of national cohesion,” the head of the French Olympic Committee, David Lappartient, told reporters.

Macron is seeking to take advantage of this more positive mood, having faced widespread criticism for his decision to call snap parliamentary elections in June which blindsided Paris 2024 organisers.

The vote resulted in a hung parliament and historic gains for the far-right National Rally party.

Instead of making a speech, he recorded a poetic voiceover over images of the Olympics and Paralympics, saying it was “a summer that had already become part of French sporting legend.”

The 46-year-old was the main instigator of Saturday’s event, which was not originally part of the Olympic or Paralympic programme.

The centrist has also announced his intention to create an Olympics-inspired “national day of sport” every year on September 14.

“We need to spend time together at a day of sport, which would take place in the street, schools, in dedicated sports centres,” he told the Parisien.

Saturday night’s concert featured singer Chris, formerly of Christine & the Queens, who performed at the Paralympics opening ceremony, as well as blind Malian duo Amadou & Mariam among others.

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