Between the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 80th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day landings, France will be a busy place next summer. If your family plans to travel there between May and August of 2024, it’s not too soon to start making reservations.
Bookings are already heavy for Paris hotels mid-July through late August, as sports lovers and families of Olympic athletes add to the thousands of people it will take to produce such an event. An expected 9.7 million spectators, 6,000 accredited journalists and 31,500 volunteers will quickly fill hotels within travel distance of the city.
The 33rd Olympic Games will take place in the heart of Paris. Hotels in city center will be most popular, as several Paris icons — the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, Place Concorde, the Grand Palais and Hotel de Ville — will be transformed into stadiums and competition venues.
The heaviest strain on hotels will be during the games, July 26–Aug. 11, but people will arrive early for preparations, and many spectators will stay on as tourists.
The numbers planning trips around the 80th anniversary of the Allied D-Day landings will not be in the millions, but Normandy doesn’t have as many hotels as Paris, either. The D-Day Festival schedule of events has not been announced yet, but these are spread along the entire coast, from Pegasus Bridge to Sainte-Mère-Eglise.
More than 100 events — parachuting, parades, concerts, historical re-enactments, fireworks, exhibitions, projections and parties — will take place at the famed landing beaches and in the coastal towns from late May to the middle of June.
These small towns are not filled with hotels (although Ouistreham has more because of its location as the port for the cross-channel ferry), and those in nearby Caen and Bayeaux fill rapidly. The larger cities of Le Havre, Rouen and Lisieux will have more options.
Those planning travel to other parts of France will be affected by these two events, too, as seats on flights to Paris and other French cities will fill rapidly, especially for July, and train traffic will be heavy as people travel to Paris from other cities.
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