How we travel: Kerry Murrill goes to the Paris Games
What she packed, how she got tickets, and a DITL of an Olympics spectator
Bonjour, mes amis! If you thought today was the day I finally closed the door on the Olympics, you were mistaken.
Following the pandemicky experience that was watching Tokyo’s desolate Games from afar, the collective effervescence surrounding Paris felt wonderful. Contagious. Life affirming. After fist-pumping at the TV a few times a day for the last two weeks, I was like, “Wait… do I need to go to the Olympics at least once in my life?”
Enter my friend Kerry, a former teammate at Google, who was sharing all the IG stories from the Paris Games last week. After repeatedly sliding into her DMs to profess how much I loved her life, I asked if she'd spill the deets with us on what it was like to go. See? Always looking out for you, dear readers.
Kerry is both very well traveled (need recs for an obscure destination? she’s your girl) and has been a part of some very high profile, logistically impressive gatherings (see: Davos, Cannes). So I was especially curious to hear her on-the-ground observations of the highly anticipated Paris Games.
Below, she shares a day in the life of an Olympic-goer, a handful of Paris recs, and all the advice for those of us setting our sights on seeing Simone’s 2028 comeback…
Tell us! What was a typical day at the Olympics like?
Luckily, all of us had been to Paris before, which took a lot of pressure off of seeing all the sights. Days were really focused on sports, so we usually did something during the day, either a late lunch or early dinner, then went to an event. We went to 15 events, not including the opening ceremony, so we tried to balance downtime, good food, sports, and champagne, of course.
We happened to have tickets to almost all medal events, which was insane and awesome, so the energy was always incredible. What surprised me most was how this felt like much more of a celebration than a competition. Everyone cheered for everyone, and overall it was really positive and fun.
We tried to average one sport a day, which was a good amount for me. One day we did two events and we were all pretty exhausted by night. From emotions, to commute times, and being outside, it felt like a lot to do two in a day.
We did take two day trips outside of the city, one to Épernay for champagne tasting, and the other to Monet’s Gardens in Giverny. I would highly recommend both!
So… how does one actually go to the Olympics? How do you get tickets to different events?
This was my first time trying to get tickets, so I’m not sure how standard this process is. We entered the ticket lottery in fall of 2022 and found out we got in around March 2023. The lottery really is just the opportunity to buy tickets—to be clear, you don’t win tickets in the lottery.
Ticket prices ran the gamut, depending on the event and availability. They were basically in tiered categories A, B, C, and sometimes D, with A being the most expensive. Early rounds of beach volleyball, for example, were around €40 per ticket, and something like women’s gymnastics finals were closer to €700.
I was given a 48-hour purchase window, so at 5 a.m. PT, I logged in and started the process. Information at that time was sparse, at best, so there were a few hiccups. Like the cart emptied after 30 minutes, so everything we thought we had, we lost, then had to find again.
There is also a ticket resale that opened spring / early summer 2024, and if you had tickets you wanted to add or get rid of, you could buy / sell there. They didn’t allow for markup pricing, which is really nice. We decided while at the Games to sell our last day of track & field and snagged tickets to the gold medal soccer match (go USA!!!).
How far did you have to plan ahead for restaurants and hotels?
Restaurants were a bit hit or miss—a lot of Paris is normally quiet in August, so we had a few issues finding places that were open. That said, many places that usually close midday stayed open, knowing people would be eating at somewhat off hours to accommodate sports. We made a few reservations at places we knew would be tricky, but for the most part, it was pretty easy to maneuver great restaurants.
Some of our favorites were Le Sauvage, Fontaine de Mars, and Le Jardin Saint-Germain. We went to Rue du Nil one night, which is a really cute little street where chef Greg Marchand has a handful of restaurants. We went to Frenchie Bar a Vins and basically ate everything on the menu. I have no regrets.
One of the biggest surprises was never hearing the NBC Olympics song, which is so dumb, but I think I’m so conditioned to hearing it that we all assumed it was part of the Olympics everywhere for everyone. It was also wild to have zero commentary.