Navigating Paris during the Olympics: new transport passes and tips to avoid Metro fare hikes

Recently, I walked through Paris to meet a friend on the Rive Gauche. On the hour-long route from my home in Montmartre, I popped in for a croissant at a favorite boulangerie, skirted around the Palais Royal, passed the pyramid of the Louvre, crossed the Seine. Post-coffee, the walk home unfolded in reverse. I ran a few errands as I got closer to my apartment: greens and radishes at our neighborhood épicerie, a crusty and warm baguette at another boulangerie, a bottle of sparkling wine at the caviste. Pausing briefly to adjust my grip on the bags at the base of the stairs leading up to the Sacre-Cœur, I made the inevitable climb up.

This story about surfing in Tahiti is part of How Paris Moves, a series of dispatches about communities and social change in France through the lens of the 2024 Summer Olympics. Read more here.

Step 1: Board the train. Step 2: Climb into bed. Step 3: Wake up at your destination.

The mass IT outage is causing problems for everyone — even Mickey Mouse.

The Skift Travel Podcast is going all-in on the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris with several interviews lined up. First up is a discussion with Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith, whose company is an official partner for this year’s Games.

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Visitors to the upcoming Paris Olympics will soon have an easy way to save money on transportation. Uber, the popular rideshare app, will be offering an automatic 10 percent discount on rides for passengers from Paris airports between July 22 through Sept. 8. The discount applies to arrivals from both Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) and Orly Airport Aéroport de Paris (ORY). Passengers can also save 30 percent if they use UberX Share within the city, as long as they are matched with another rider during the trip. 

Jul 17, 2024 • 7 min read

While athletes from around the world will flock to Paris later this month to go for gold at the Summer Olympics, this doesn't mean travelers are following suit and heading to the City of Light.

I’ve been planning my trip to the Olympics since March 2023. I’ve spent countless hours pouring over the ticketing platform, researching the best neighborhoods to stay in Paris, figuring out the Metro, and finding any way to save money.

Every year is an Olympics year in Lausanne, Switzerland, a city of stone buildings, tile roofs and historic church squares perched on a hillside overlooking Lake Geneva. As home to the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Museum, the city is involved year-round in championing the Games, long before and long after the official ceremonies take place. (This year, the Summer Olympics and Paralympics, mostly in and around Paris, run from July 26 to Sept. 8.)

The first time we took our twin sons to the US from Australia, they were surprised by how different things were between the two countries.