So my patrons voted on where they wanted me to go check out what's going on with the Olympics updates next. And they voted for the Tuileries. But on my way through, I was like, wow, the Olympic rings are up. I do need to see that. The goal is to get to the Tuileries today. The garden across from the Louvre, or, like right next to it, basically. But I'm not really sure if we're going to be allowed inside or what we'll be able to see, so we're going to make sure to take advantage of a few stops along the way, just in case we don't get to see much in the gardens. But I am very curious to see how everything's coming along. The whole city is transforming steadily around Paris. This is Trocadeéo. You can see that the Olympic rings are on the Eiffel Tower, so that's very real. And this monstrosity viewing platform, I think there are goingna be some viewing platforms that we can see along the ..there's some changes to check out along the way, so even if we don't make it into the gardens, we'll be welcomed by construction noises of all kinds. I saw this thing briefly the other day, and I actually thought it was on the river, which would have made sense for like a viewing platform for the opening ceremonies, but maybe they're gonna put cameras in there for the Eiffel Tower. I don't know. Looks very nice, though. That was at pont Alma, in case you're curious. Speaking of catching glimpses, I've also caught a glimpse of the stadium they're building on the Champ de Mars, right below the Eiffel Tower for beach volleyball. And it looks bananas. Like it looks huge. From what I saw, it was peeking up over the trees from a distance in a way that made you think that that's like a real stadium, so that was kind of crazy. I'm very curious to see what Concorde looks like ahead. And I know they're going to end up blocking off Pont Alexandre III or the bridge of Alexander III, which I can actually see some bleachers from here. So I'll give you a sneak peek at that, assuming that the road doesn't get totally blocked off, and we'll see what else has changed. Oh yeah. Speaking of roads getting blocked off. Hmm. I haven't ridden my bike in a couple weeks, and now I'm gonna pay for my ignorance. Detour. All right, that looks about half finished, and I guess this is how they're going to secure the river. There's a fence. I don't know how much of the river it's go going to cover, but that's kind of sad. Oh, hey look, there's a stadium over at Invalides going up. We'll have a summer where we don't have to stop here on our bikes as often. But the downside is I love spending time on the river. I'm really curious to see how much of the river they block off because river time in the summer is one of the best parts of the summer in Paris. Yeah, you can see the stadiums at Concorde and the sporty assembly nationale that just got dissolved last night. So that's kind of stressful. But hey, we're here for fun, sporty stuff, I guess. So let's go do that over here on this very closed looking bridge. Look at that. The last video I made, only those stadiums were up. There were a couple of like bleachers over here, but nothing like that. And now it looks like we can't even go in there. So good thing we did Concorde last time. Tuileries is just over here. So. All right, will we be able to get in? Is the question. Also. Other question. Why did it have to rain today? It was like blazing hot and sunny yesterday. I realized that's not a way of predicting the weather, but I'm still kind of sad about this. Looks like we're in. Well, hopefully this rain doesn't last forever. No bikes allowed in the Tuileries and or Tuileries. Can't stop thinking of that mispronunciation, which obviously people are gonna ride their bikes through there, but I'll be a good boy. Lock this up out here. We're here. Let's go see what we find. At least. I'm under the impression that they were doing something here for the Olympics. I saw like some construction happening over here. You can see Concorde over here, the stadiums. And there's a really big stairwell over here. Check that out. Well, it looks like this is just made to get you. I was gonna say over the road, but over the construction of whatever they're building here. And it's opaque on the side. So I'm not sure we're going to really get a peek at what these tents are, but can give it a try at least. Well, I mean, one perk to this thing is that I'm not getting rained on quite as much. But the downside is, well, I can kind of see what's going on through here. Kind of pseudo see through there are some holes here. Here we go. Umm yeah, well, this is a dud, and it doesn't even extend across the street, so... I'd seen that they were working on this for a while. Like, I've ridden my bike by a bunch. I saw that they were blocking things off. They were building something here. Turns out it was just a sky bridge over the work that they were doing. As far as what they end up in this for? No idea. But, hey, what's a rainy trip out into Paris without some disappointment? I mean, really? But thanks to Liz Rivera Goldstein and all my patrons for voting on this and sending me out, I didn't know what we were going to get ourselves into. And that's kind of the mystery. What's kind of, I think, bothering me the most is seeing the river
partially closed off. They're talking about closing off a lot more of it, which is kind of actually understandable both for security and for the protest that's coming. If you haven't heard about it yet, on June 23, or whenever Hidalgo decides to go swimming in the Seine, there's a large group of French people that are organizing a protest to poop in the river to demonstrate... I'm not exactly sure against what, probably against the opulence of these games and how kind of counter to the actual narrative that they sold earlier on was. I just found out about this from some friends the other day, and then I saw it on John Oliver today, and it is pretty funny. It's very classically french. There's a part of me, though, that hopes that they don't. Obviously, I hope that they don't, because I really want the river to be clean, and I'm hoping that the efforts to clean it succeed. It doesn't sound like it'll be done in time for the Olympics, but what do I know? I hope it is. I really hope it is. What is going to be done in time for the Olympics? That's the real question. Also, why did I wear sunscreen and wear sunglasses? What was I thinking? Why am I so optimistic today? It is cool to see things come together. And I actually, I'm still feeling pretty optimistic for the Olympics, but a little bit mixed. I mean, I guess on the upside, the gardens are open and fairly unobstructed, like, the vast majority of this is still available if you wanted to wander through it. And these gardens are a really nice break, especially after the Louvre, if you need to get a little bit of nature. But I would highly recommend grabbing something to eat before you wander in here. Getting hungry. So it looks like it's just a couple of the extremities that are closed off. This chair is soaked. I don't really want to sit on it, but this is what I'm doing just for you, oh my loyal viewers. Actually, why don't I brush it off first so you can still sit at some of these ponds, even the pond right here, half of it, at least for the moment, and kind of look at the obelisk in the distance. It's gonna ruin some photos if you're hoping to come get them. But hey, can't win em all. I'm way back. I'm going toa try and swing around and see if I can see what these stadiums look like, the new ones over here. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's really hard to get in there. Now. It looks like this is pretty well closed off. So basically the northern arm of the park and then the westernmost section is closed off. The orangerie is still open. There's still people going in that's still available. You's just gonna get shepherded through, like the one remaining stairwell. And the Louvre is still open on the other side. And hopefully when you come, it won't be raining like this. We were hoping to leave this behind in at least May, but no, apparently the rainy cold will continue into June. Not that I'm salty about it and my butt is wet. All right, let's see what this Concorde situation looks like. Unwelcoming. How do I can I have to go around this. Some wood stuff. A tent. It's pretty glamorous. That third stadium is pretty sizable. So these two stadiums were ones that we've seen before. That one over there, that's all new. And this tent, that's all new. Is it gonna get taller? It looks like it's being built to be taller. I hope it's taller. Not that I have anything against short tents. Just looks kind of squat the way it is right now. Oh, the sun's coming out. Hey, just in time to go home soaked. Security's helping people out. It's nice. Algh so weird to see this totally blocked off. There's no, look at this. There's no traffic. This is usually just absolutely rammed with cars. I mean, I don't mind Paris without cars. Kind of like Paris without cars. Could we just keep it this way? But let us in here... now... this is as close as we get. That's a lot of fencing. Good thing we got into Concorde before it got to this stage. There you go. I'll link to that video as well as I'll just link to that video if you want to go check that out. We had some laughs, we shed some tears. We made some friends along the way, and this has been our trip to the Tuileries gardens. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks to my patrons for voting on where to go on this one. I'll put up another poll on Patreon soon if you'd like to support my channel and everything that I'm doing around here. We're doing so much. So I actually feel very underwater right now with how much we're doing. Feel free to jump over on Patreon, toss us a little bit of support there, and otherwise I'll see bright and early one of these mornings sometime soon with I don't even know what. There's so something, something good. See you soon.
