Paris 2024 Urban Canoe Day 4

Paris 2024

Day 4 – Concorde Urban Project, Canoe Slalom and Paris sightseeing

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An extract from a diary, written by one of the Scouts: Today, we went to see canoe slalom!!!! We didn’t have to leave until 12:10, so we had a lazy morning. I slept until 9:00, which was great! When we went to canoe slalom, we had to have a 2 hour coach journey (urrgh)! We then went to the stadium, which was sooo busy! We then found out that it wasn’t actually canoe slalom we were going to see, it was – drum roll please… …KAYAK CROSS! I was beyond excited! It was sooo fun! At the start, the kayaks got dropped 3metres into the water. They then battled it out a bit before evening out. They went past pole no. 1 and actually flipped over their kayaks to pass under a low hanging bar!!!! They then hopped around one of the poles. We were all really happy because every GB kayak got through in either repechage or round 1. We even got on TV while we were celebrating!

We’re internationally famous on the TV! (And the canoe slalom stadium saw me dancing!)

Canoe cross is excellent! We properly enjoyed it. 3 or 4 canoeists get launched off a 3 metre high platform and log roll and slalom their way down a 200 metre course. At times it’s dog eat dog. As described by one, canoe, so dramatic better then water polo. (How they know that, they haven’t been…) Guy nearly drowned.! Yes, one had a roll and struggled to correct himself. The excellent rescue crew jumped in and all was well. He still did the reparcharges, and received a hero’s welcome. The guy was from the Olympic refugee team.

Our seats were superb. Could see the whole course. And a camera was placed right in front of us. Cue: plenty of on screen appearances! Some of which made it to the main TV coverage.

Plenty of GB too. Most of whom won. Except Adam Burgess, who went through to the repacharges. As Hatty said, though:
I shouted at Adam burgess and he missed the gate. Oops!

Did you know:
Lost jumpers make their way to lost property/ information desk in timely fashion.
Game makers love high fives and are wonderfully friendly. Loads of high fives all round. Even friendly Gendarmerie. The neckers and pink t-shirts go down a treat!

Juliette is impressed with her good karma. I gave a German lady a free badge, and later a French girl gave me a pin badge. Sweet!

Long journey home and no Eiffel tower or Stade de France views on the way home.

The other lot went to a place called Paris.

Concorde Urban Project: well busy and thus a disappointment. A large crew to get in. Although, the skateboarding was pretty cool and the boxing.

Sightseeing team saw the bonus mens’ road race. Seeing the winner come through and then weaving through the Louvre.
Waffles in the garden on the Louvre.
A lovely tranquil boat ride along the Seine.
Apparently, the Eiffel Tower is enormous.