Remember the expensive tickets? Finally, some promised cheap tickets showed up. And there was an official ticket exchange where you could resell your strictly personal ticket. With the Games already in full swing, I scored a 24 € ticket for a volleyball match on Friday morning. (I wanted a sport I know at least the basic rules off, and swimming was still very much out of reach.)

And there were also the street events. That’s what they called everything happening out in the open: road cycling, marathon, triathlon. Given the high security zones mentioned earlier, you’d think watching something for free would be impossible. Well, it wasn’t.

When I went to see the triathlon, the only problem was the (much maligned) water safety. The first day’s races had to be postponed, and even on the second day, it was still raining in the morning. The Pont Alexandre III had stands for paying spectators and also the finishing line, while we onlookers crowded every available spot along the riverbanks.

I literally went to see the triathlon on my way to work. Where I stood, we heard the starting signal, then saw the swimmers arrive and round the buoy, repeat this feat and then vanish from sight.

While I made my way through the crowd back onto the street and toward the métro station, the athletes had already finished their first cycling lap and were racing past faster than I could point my camera.

I checked out the running part later on the replay, wondering which of the many colorful swim caps I had seen in the river had been the French triathlete Cassandre Beaugrand who’d gone on to win gold.