France will be the ultimate sporting arena in 2024 with the Paris Olympic Games from Friday 26 July to Sunday 11 August 2024, followed a few weeks later by the Paralympic Games from Wednesday 28 August to Sunday 8 September 2024. For the first time, the Opening Ceremony won’t be held in a stadium but in the heart of Paris, on the banks of the Seine. The aim is to halve the carbon footprint of the Olympic Games. 95% of the Games will take place in existing sports venues or heritage sites in the Greater Paris Region and other parts of France. Think skateboarding on the Place de la Concorde, beach volleyball on the Champs de Mars at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and equestrian events at the Château de Versailles.
In addition, the forthcoming Olympic Games will introduce a completely new discipline: Breaking. It will be added to the existing sports of climbing, skateboarding and surfing and, for France, will take place on one of the beautiful Tahitian islands in French Polynesia. Be sure to follow the festive Olympic torch relay. The torch will arrive in Marseille from Greece on 8 May aboard the tall ship Le Belem for a 68-day whirlwind tour of mainland France and its overseas regions. Coincidentally, Toulon in the Var will be the second city to receive the torch after Marseille on 10 May.
The New York – Vendée Sables d’Olonne is another major sporting event that will take place on 29 May 2024. It is the last qualifying race before the Vendée Globe – and the only transatlantic race to start in the Big Apple. Before embarking on a 3,200-mile journey across the Atlantic, the sailors will entertain the public with a spectacular show at the Statue of Liberty base and other pre-race celebrations on 24 May.
Then, on 10 November 2024, the 10th edition of the Vendée Globe, also known as the Everest of the seas – a solo, non-stop, unassisted race around the world – will set sail from the Sables d’Olonne in the Vendée. Around 40 skippers will depart from this seaside town, which boasts magnificent beaches and one of the most beautiful bays in the world.
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition, the 2024 Normandy Impressionist Festival, from 22 March to 22 September 2024, promises to be truly exceptional, with an unexpected American influence. This 5th edition will feature a major Whistler exhibition in Rouen, and the 12th edition of the summer Sound & Light show at Rouen Cathedral will be curated by American theatre and multidisciplinary artist Robert Wilson.
Normandy has also joined forces with the Paris Region to celebrate the anniversary with a major exhibition entitled ‘Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment’ at the Musée d’Orsay from late March to mid-July. The exhibition will then travel to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., for a late summer/winter show of some 130 paintings, works on paper, prints, sculptures and photographs.
Les Floralies de Nantes, a prestigious international horticultural event since 1965, will move to nearby Vendée from 17 to 26 May 2024. It will be held at the Domaine de La Chabotterie – an 18th century estate set in 118 hectares of lush woodland and meadows.
Expected to attract over 200,000 visitors, the event will showcase the imaginative creations of 200 participants from France, the United States and beyond. Aptly named ‘Flower Games’ in a nod to the Summer Olympics, the 2024 edition will feature five thematic areas: water, childhood, intellectual, physical and garden games.
These celebrations and achievements wouldn’t be possible without the bravery of the Allied soldiers and veterans who took part in the historic D-Day landings in Normandy. They will be honoured in 2024 on the 80th anniversary of this pivotal chapter in the Second World War. In addition to the 6 June landings in Normandy, it’s also the 80th anniversary of Operation Dragoon, a crucial Franco-American landing that took place on 15 August 1944.
The main landing sites were located in Le Var, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. Following these landings, the Allied forces advanced up the Rhone Valley in a coordinated pincer movement to cut off and engage retreating German troops. This strategic manoeuvre culminated in a historic meeting with D-Day veterans in Dijon on 12 September 1944.