Mollie Naylor won our peer led Employee of Quarter Award for Quarter 2. To celebrate her achievement Mollie had the amazing opportunity to attend the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris with her mum.

Read on to find our more about her unforgettable experience:  

 

The Award

It was so lovely to have been voted Employee of the Quarter by my colleagues. It was just such an incredible feeling that so many people had recognised the work I had done and effort I had put in, it was the sweetest feeling and made it all worth it. It is not every day you get such an extravagant prize for doing well in your role and the fact that it was all made possible by them. I will be forever grateful!

 

First Impressions

I have only been to Paris once over a decade ago and so I had no expectations for what it would be like, just that it would be incredibly busy with it being both summer and the Olympics, but myself and my mum were so excited!

Paris was buzzing with energy for the Olympics, it was incredible to be a part of and it was also so refreshing to have so many people from all around the world in one city! Hearing so many different languages and seeing so many different cultures there to support their own countries was just wonderful. We also felt so safe walking around; anywhere we went there were high levels of security and lots of police wandering around.

The preparations did mean that many areas we wanted to visit were inaccessible and huge barriers around arenas did block off certain sites and attractions. Metro planning was made more difficult with closed stations during our time there, but this just added to the adventure!

The accommodation was so lovely, very modern and chic. Its good metro station connections were ideal as this was main way we travelled anywhere in Paris! It was so cool to feel like we owned our own Parisian apartment!!

 

Local Culture 

We saw as many of the sites of Paris as possible when we were not attending any Olympic events, we managed a strong 20,000 steps every single day with a PB of 31,000 steps on our biggest tourist-y day! If you’re ever lucky enough to visit Paris don’t forget to pack blister plasters and comfy shoes!!

The main sites we made sure to see were the Eiffel Tower (both during the day and sparkling at night!), the Arc de Triumph, the Olympic Flame, The Louvre and the most gorgeous town of Montmartre. We also bought tickets to see Moulin Rouge which was an absolutely incredible show and a must-see when in Paris!

We ate our body weight in croissants, crepes, macarons and other pastries throughout our stay and then finished our trip off with some wine and food with a panoramic view of Paris on the rooftop of Galeries Lafayette which was stunning and the best way we could have hoped to bring our holiday to a close!

 

The Main Event 

We attended the Women’s semi-final for both volleyball and basketball. The atmosphere was electric at volleyball, they had all the fans chanting when certain moves and points were scored, they did such a good job at getting us all involved. We were surrounded by Brazil fans and so immediately started supporting Brazil! It was such high energy we loved it, even if Brazil sadly lost to USA in the end. Our seats for the basketball were so close to the court it was amazing to see the game so well and we felt much more involved in the action which was great – we even spotted Kevin Durant on the side-lines supporting the US team!

All except one of our evenings were spent at the Team GB House. It was such a cool experience to be surrounded by GB fans and have both former and current Olympians just wandering around and sitting and chatting with us! We met Sir Mark Cavendish, Dame Kelly Holmes and Anthony Ogogo and his wife, to name just a few, who were all so lovely to talk to and really down to earth. They made us feel very welcome!

We also had the pleasure of watching Natasha Bedingfield perform at Team GB House. The opportunity to dance and sing along to Unwritten, Pocketful of Sunshine and These Words with Olympians around us was immense and an experience i will never forget!

We also accidentally ran into the Marathon Pour Tous around 11pm that went right through the city centre. It was such a fantastic atmosphere, we ended up staying for so long just cheering and shouting them on. It was really cool to see so many of the runners even stop mid-race to grab a quick selfie with the Olympic Flame high in the sky.

 

Personal reflections and Lasting Impressions:

Seeing the Olympics in Paris was such an incredible experience. It was very well organised, everywhere was signposted well and it was very clear where you needed to go when entering an arena right from leaving the metro. The volunteers were amazing; very friendly and helpful. There was always someone there if ever you needed. We also loved how they ensured to bring the Olympics to the people themselves, you always felt a part of it wherever you went. Even the Olympic Flame was so accessible, you didn’t have to go anywhere special to see it.

The greatest lasting impact this whole experience had on us was hearing all the inspirational stories the athletes kindly shared with us about their journeys to get to the Olympics and how they overcame their own personal struggles and any other obstacles that came their way. It was so moving, and they even helped give some advice to us to! Will take that experience with us forever.

Even though we managed to see a lot of the sights of Paris, so many of the sights were inaccessible and we would only find out after travelling all the way there. Places that were still open had queues miles long and we unfortunately had to give up on seeing a lot of those places as we didn’t have enough time to wait in line. So, our advice would be to just solely immerse

yourself into the Olympics and ensure to see as many events and sports as possible and then revisit the amazing location at another time when there aren’t the same restrictions and crowds!

We would love to attend the Olympic Games again. I am so grateful to have been given this amazing opportunity to see this once in a lifetime experience. I didn’t know at the time, but it was my mum’s biggest regret not taking us all to see the London 2012 Olympic Games and so for me and her to be able to experience the Paris Olympics together was just the best thing we could have hoped for.

 

If you’re interested in visiting Paris or attending a major sporting event, get in touch with us at Impulse Decisions. Email us at bookings@impulsedecisions.com or call us on 01423 531682. Our team would be delighted to help you plan your perfect getaway.