Remember the cauldron of Paris 2024? A golden hot-air balloon in the middle of the city?
Of course we had to go see it!

Free viewing tickets were impossible to get (like all tickets for these Games) but hey, the balloon was in the air, right? So on Sunday after the opening ceremony, we hopped on the métro and went into town. It was a lovely warm summer evening, and we walked from Invalides over to the Tuileries where the cauldron (la Vasque) was, staying on the opposite bank at first.

Then we crossed and realized we could get pretty close without any tickets whatsoever.

Did you know the Cauldron had no real flame? It was a LED lighting system plus a cloud of mist generated by a lot of water jets. We got to see it up close.

We finished off with some great shots from the Arc de Triomphe du Carroussel, the small triumphal arch just across from the Louvre. There were lots of people everywhere, and ten times more different languages than what you usually hear in the tourist areas of Paris. It felt very special to be a part of this.