We had a lot of travel today to make it to our first Olympic event in Paris, so we got an early start and set off to return our rental car in Rouen. We bought our train tickets from Rouen to Paris during the drive over and were slightly disappointed that the 11 am train was fully booked and that we would have to take the 12 pm train, as our ETA to Rouen was just after 10 am. As it turned out, there was very little signage to signify where to return the rental car and it took us over a half an hour to figure out where to go. (Chuck wants to add that the spiral drive down 6 levels in the garage once he found it was so tiny and slightly terrifying) This seems to be a pattern for us in Rouen.

We caught our train and made it to Paris uneventfully, but unfortunately there weren’t any direct options from Rouen to the station closest to our hotel, which meant that we needed to take the metro after the train. After many trips up and down several sets of stairs (we had to change lines once, which added to the process) with all of our luggage, we finally made it to our hotel. The last time we were on a metro in Paris, we were pick-pocketed… and Becky was very concerned it might happen again, but so far we both have our wallets and passports.

We checked in and quickly divested ourselves of our luggage before heading on to Stade de France, again via metro but this time much less encumbered. We are so pleasantly surprised at how transportation and crowd control are running so far! So many volunteers! We both expected it to be incredibly chaotic, but they seem to be ready for us.

There was something in the air when we got off the metro and the crowd saw the stadium. There was a little extra pep in everyone’s step. As they all reached for their phones to take pictures of the stadium, you could almost see childhood dreams coming true.

We made it in the stadium and sat next to some very friendly French fans. Unfortunately, the USA’s first match was against France and the French rugby team is very good. We didn’t expect a good result and were pleased with the draw. Our French seat mates were less pleased but they were good sports.

As this was a 6 hour session with lots of matches (rugby 7s are 7 minute halves so probably max 29 minutes) we wandered around. We got to see the stadium and all the various countries fans having a good time. We learned as well that the Olympic organizers didn’t seek an exemption to the alcohol sales ban in French stadiums so they had only sodas and near beers (Chuck was surprisingly okay with this).

We watched several matches and finished with the second USA match of the session against Fiji. Fiji is excellent and very fast and we had little answer for them and lost 38-12 and it could have been much worse. After the match we headed back to the hotel and again the level of organization and help for everyone was impressive. We are now relaxing and watching the USA/France football match.

Today’s Highlights

• Rouen ruins Charles’ navigational confidence once again
• Electric energy around Le Stade de France
• Rugby!
• Seeing France win their second match (the one that wasn’t against us)
• Not getting pick-pocketed

Tomorrow’s Proposed Adventures

• A tour of Sainte-Chapelle
• Sight-seeing around Île de la Cité or wherever we can get to that isn’t closed for the games
• Hopefully not getting pick-pocketed