Adventure in Normandie

Or in another words, what I ate while in France! I do definitely love French food and so I have to make the most of it when visiting.

I was lucky to have a few days back in Normandie, and it felt like autumn had arrived already. It was drizzly and cool but a nice peaceful pace after the excitement of the last three weeks.

The grapes are ripening just as I have to leave. There is nothing like the taste of grapes fresh off the vine. Even with variable sunshine, they are delicious. Probably not worth a vintage though!

I got to go for a favourite walk along the river and the sun even popped out.

Trying to catch the house under blue skies to update the Airbnb photos.

I got my new front door camera up and running as an extra security measure.

The sunflowers raised their heads to say goodbye. See you next time Normandie ❤️

It has been a great experience to be a volunteer at the Paralympics and I feel very lucky to have been able to have had this opportunity. The volunteers have been the ‘face’ of the organisational side of the Games and the people in green.

I have met a great group of other volunteers who have overwhelmingly had the same attitude of supporting the games and enjoying themselves while doing so!

The official number of volunteers was 45,000! Most of the others are French with a few other nationalities, a Brit, a Finn, a Turk, and me! Many of the French people have come from all over France to take part and the common reason is to be part of the Games. Some were sponsored by their company but many were retired or students or just wanted to Bek involved. Everyone has been so welcoming and friendly and interested in being open and learning. It has been a truly heart warming experience ❤️

It really didn’t matter what everyone does in life, everyone just jumped in to get the job at hand done. We had a team organisation session each morning and worked out who was doing what and importantly, what time was lunch.

I have many new contacts now and while I may not see many of them again, it is a lovely thought to know there are like minded people in every corner of the world.

I do feel very privileged to have witnessed the Paralympics up close. The challenges these people have experienced to get to this level is amazing. They are achieving sporting feats that many of us able- bodied can only dream of. I really think that future Olympics need to find a way to include para sports in with the others. Anyone who has seen a game of wheelchair rugby or basketball can’t help but enjoy it!

I have seen many less able bodied people around Paris this fortnight and simply seeing people around normalises what is different.

I have discussed with friends, the need to make the metro more accessible. As Paris moves to being car free or at least limited (a noble aim), it’s important that public transport is accessible to the elderly, parents with young children and those less able to cope with the many stairs. Currently it is not very accessible at all.

We were given some lovely gifts to thank us for being volunteers and at every game in the stadiums we were given a round of applause. Several times members of the public wanted to take a photo with me!

See you in Brisbane?!

What better way to end the Paralympics than with host nation France winning the blind football gold medal at the Eiffel Tower stadium full of a home crowd!

I got to see most of the bronze medal game between Colombia and Brazil which was won by Brazil. I only got to see parts of the France game but that included the penalty shots and the end. It was a very exciting finish!

We had a lot of VIPs for the gold medal game, not surprisingly and that took a bit to manage. The match was a avery exciting finishing at 1-1.

The penalty shoot out was again exciting and the crowd went wild when France won!

The medal ceremony was wonderful for all the fans and I love to sing the Marseillaise, the French anthem.

We were very lucky after the game to see the French players come out and to get onto the pitch for some photos. We got some great photos but they haven’t all come through yet.

We said goodbye to our team of paid staff who were all very sad. They had all worked both the Olympics and Paralympics and worked very long hours so it will be hard for it to end. We always felt like they after our big commemorations. So much work goes into it, and then it’s all over and you feel a bit low for a while.

Someone had organised a volunteer after party for the last night, so we headed off to Cafe Oz at Châtelet which was packed full of volunteers!

One of my favourite things to do is to flâner in Paris, a la Hemingway. Paris is a city made for walking around. It’s also through doing this that you realise how all the areas are connected, and that the Place des Vosges leads into the Marais which ends at the Pompidou Centre or that Bastille takes you to Ile St Louis which takes you to the Cite which is across from the Louvre. Or you might end up at the Olympic megastore on the Champs Élysées! Funnily enough, in the 5 minutes I waited for a friend out the front I was asked five questions. Everyone recognises the volunteer uniform.

The metro system is really amazing and takes you everywhere for a good price but you don’t get to see the sights and well, the smell is less fresh 😳

The start and end of the triathlon and marathons happened on Pont Alexandre III.

There are so many cute cafes and gorgeous old buildings and lovely architecture in Paris.

I popped into the Conciergerie, for free as a volunteer, as it some of my favourite buildings. It was originally the Royal Palace and much improved in medieval times by Philippe IV le Bel . It was only later that it became a prison and housed Queen Marie Antoinette.

When you are not in a hurry and have no particular plan (rare for me) you get the most out of Paris and its secrets.

The Eiffel Tower is still my favourite monument by far and I adore the structure, the fact it was supposed to be temporary and her sparkling beauty.

I have been able to catch a few minutes of the blind football at the stunning Eiffel Tower stadium, during both day and night shifts. The football players are quite amazing and play very hard, there are lots of physical clashes. They all wear an eye mask so all visual impairments at equalised and they use the fence on the border of the pitch quite a lot to situate themselves. The ball makes a sound so part of our role as volunteers is to keep everyone quiet so the players can hear the ball 🤫 !

The stadium at Champs de Mars has been turned into a venue for judo, with a huge mat in the middle of the venue. There are lots of categories in the judo and so there have been many events and medal ceremonies over the past few days.

We have had quite a few VIPs and yesterday a large Swedish delegation with Queen Silvia of Sweden. I got to drive her back to her car in my little EV vehicle.

The blind football had two very exciting semi- finals to set up for the Gold medal match. France beat Columbia 1-0 right near the end to the support of a large crowd, which included the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo and Tony Estanguet, the President of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee.

The second semi- final was between Argentina and six times Paralympic champions Brésil.

The match ended nil all and went straight to penalty shootouts! Both teams scored the first and then second and then both missed. Then it went to sudden death for another 3 rounds until the Brazilian missed and Argentina won the game.

Allez les Bleues for Gold!

I had a great experience at the Stade de France tonight at the athletics. All the volunteers were offered free tickets on different days and I am glad I went. There was a lot happening at any given moment, running events and javelin, long jump, shot put and discus, all interspersed with medal ceremonies. I can only imagine the massive spreadsheet that organised all the movements!

I got to see a few Australians compete which was great. I saw Michael Burian do a number of javelin throws and then, win the bronze medal! It was great to see him compete and then his medal ceremony.

I thought the little remote control cars they used to return the javelins were pretty nifty!

As I was leaving, I couldn’t believe it but I saw Michael with family and so I congratulated him and asked for a photo! He seemed happy to agree!

I also got to see two other Aussies race who unfortunately didn’t make it the finals. Telaya Blacksmith is a young indigenous woman from the NT. I got a photo of her as she was leading her 400m race going into the bend.

I also got to see Samuel Rizzo in his 1500m wheelchair race which was very exciting but not the result he hoped for.

It was great to be so close to the action and it really made it feel real rather than watching on TV. Seeing the athletes up close the past few days at the rugby and tonight, really made me feel in awe of their achievements. Not only are they elite athletes but they have each had to overcome personal challenges of some kind, many of them pretty serious ones. This makes their efforts all the more impressive. While the dedication of all athletes is impressive, the resilience and determination shown in the Paralympics is really at another level. It has been inspirational being here and I am so glad I came.

Friends and I have been discussing why we hold separate Olympics with a separate opening and closing ceremony. Sure there are some logistics to consider, but wouldn’t it be amazing if there was a single, joined up opening and closing ceremony and paralympic events were interspersed with olympic events? Something for Brisbane 2032 to ponder.

I was very lucky to be in the volunteer team at the Champs de Mars stadium today as I got to see Australia win bronze! It was so exciting and nerve wracking. It was a very close game and we just edged out the UK in the end, 50-48.

It was so great to see the players so happy, they fought a tough game. The two stars Bond and Batt did really well.

My UK colleague volunteer and I waited to see the players at the end ( after our shift) and we followed them out to where all their family and friends were waiting! A lot of happiness and cheering for the Aussies and a bit sad for the Brits.

Our volunteer teams are starting to get some good systems in place to manage the flow of officials and those with mobility needs. I have had some fun driving the EVs around and meeting different groups including our Australian officials and some friendly Kiwis. We had rain yesterday and today so the Champs de Mars turned into a bit of a mud pit!

The food being served for both visitors and volunteers has been heavily based on vegetarian meals. This is part of Paris’ push for sustainability. I think it has been delicious!

I was lucky enough to get to see our Australian Steelers third game today. Another win after beating France last night and we await a place in the finals, which depends on other

matches tonight.

It was another great ambiance in the stadium!

It was a pretty tight game and it was great to see the tactics being used. I didn’t fully understand it all but clearly our team were using tactics to our advantage. When you have the ball, you have 10 seconds to pass or dribble. When your team has the ball, you have 40 seconds to score. Plus there were some fouls and then the player had to sit out. Our very strong players, Ryley Batt and Chris Bond, really dominate physically and control the game. They would often almost score and then tease the opposition and run down time on the clock.

The players actually fall over reasonably often in the chairs due the violent clashes. Like other sports, floor cleaners are required. 😁

We were allowed to go down onto the court for a team photo at the end of our shift.

I decided to ride a bike back home rather than the metro as it was a nice afternoon. There are so many bike lanes in Paris now and it was really easy to rid from the Champs de Mars to the 11th. There were a lot of other cyclists and people out and about.

I used the Uber app to take a Lime bike and it was really easy. It did cost 13€ though, which is a bit more than my free metro card 🤔.

I had a great first day as I got to see some of the Australia v UK wheelchair rugby! It was a little chaotic in the grandstand at the start but memories of managing the VIP seating at Anzac Day came flooding back.

We started with a lesson on the electric mobility cars. They are bigger than golf carts and pretty nifty.

The atmosphere in the stadium for the game was amazing! The seats were full and there were lots of Australian spectators. Our Australian Minister for Sport was also there. It was very busy managing the Officials arriving and finding them seats but I did get to see some of the game. It was a really close game, very even until the last two minutes when unfortunately the UK got a few points ahead. Some of our players were so fast and powerful and very agile in their chairs.

I spent the afternoon outdoors, directing officials. I saw the Australian team depart.