Paris Olympics Day 4- Hôtel de Ville and Centre Pompidou

All of our ticketed events were over, and I had to go back to work the next day, but we still made the most of one last day in Paris. 

The best year :)

I'd seen that the Hôtel de Ville was hosting a fan zone with live events showing on big screens and activities for kids. We arrived early and didn't have to wait to get in. Pete spotted the actor Wendell Pierce from Jack Ryan, entering when we were. That was our only celeb sighting of the games. 

There was a stage where groups were demonstrating martial arts

A climbing wall for kids

We tried our hand at wheelchair tennis. Obviously very hard! The volunteer running it was hillarious- heckling us when we couldn't get to the ball in time. Calling Pete "Joe Biden's dad" and me, "Joe Biden's mom"! 

Watching athletes. They had bleacher style seats and sold beer. I could have stayed all day watching events here! 

We had more of Paris to see before hitting the road so we left the site and walked over to l'île Saint-Louis in search of macaroons at Pierre Hermé⁩⁦. So hard to choose from all of the delicious sounding combos! 

We then crossed to Île de la Cité to see Notre Dame. The reconstruction appears to be going well and it will be amazing when it is complete and open again!

The first Sunday of the month, museums in Paris are free. We'd never been to Centre Pompidou and were excited to check it out. The kid area wasn't all that exciting and the kids weren't thrilled to look at modern art, but we saw enough to satisfy our curiosity. There was a special exhibit on the secret history of the Nike Air Max, but you had to book it in advance so we missed out. The front of the building had changing LED Nike displays, which was cool! 

We'd been in France for 11 days and had yet to make it to a market. Serious violation. So we walked to Marché Couvertt des Enfants Rouges for lunch. 

The security presence in the city was very strong. We saw many different fractions of security forces equipped with serious guns. We never felt unsafe and I am so relieved that the games went off safely after concerns of terrorist attacks. 

The market was pretty overwhelming- I wanted one of everything! Places had little areas to sit, but we couldn't all agree on one cuisine so we had to order from the pizza place, the burger place, the sandwich shop... and then take our goods to the nearby park for a picnic in the gazebo. 

Au revoir, Paris! You were wonderful, as always! Anyone who may be thinking about going to the LA Olympics in 4 years... do it!!