Nearly 15 million tourists from across the world are getting their berets fitted and brushing up on their French skills in anticipation of the 2024 Summer Olympics being held in the famed city of light, Paris. The 16-day event is set to be the biggest in French history, expecting to generate over €11.1 billion and host 206 countries. When such an event occurs in a place as renowned as Paris, one can only expect the most dazzling venues and beautiful arenas to be the stages of the world’s greatest athletes, a concept the French Olympic Committee seems to have well grasped. France has already spent upwards of €9.7 billion before even a single event has begun, planning to host games at famous attractions such as at the base of the Eiffel Tower, Palace of Versailles, Grand Palais, Palais de la Concorde, and even Tahiti, French Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean.

In addition to the exceptional venues, Paris will bring back skateboarding, surfing, and sport climbing (optional sports) to the competition from the 2020 Summer Olympics, as well as add breaking (breakdancing) to the list of sports for the very first time. The venue for surfing in Teahupo’o, Tahiti, was chosen because “It offers an opportunity to engage French overseas territories and their communities in the Olympic Games—for the first time in history,” according to the official Olympic website. The French government seems to be pulling out all the stops, sparing no expense to make Paris illuminate with success and achievement. This is expressed by the €1.5 billion project to make the river Seine, which flows through the heart of Paris, clean enough for marathon swimmers to swim in, a recreation illegal for over 100 years due to pollution. The Olympics excites billions of fans across nearly every country on earth, providing unity and sportsmanship in a world consistently found to be at odds with itself, only building the immense anticipation to hear the boom of a pistol, blow of a whistle, and the roar of a crowd.