Yahoo Sport 
Food and drinks for thought as Olympics show heads out of Paris to Los Angeles
On an unprepossessing street corner in the 10th arrondissement in Paris, the 2024 Olympics came to an end via a giant TV screen for around 30 people inside Le Mondial brasserie and 20 others listening and occasionally looking in from the chairs outside. Some 10 kilometres to the north in Saint Denis, 75,000 spectators were packed into the Stade de France for the in person experience of a closing ceremony,
Marie, ensconced on a stool a few metres from Le Mondial's counter and awaiting a drink, readily conceded she had been an Olympics doomsayer. “Well, I am a Parisienne,” she added with un petit soupcon of self-mockery to justify the default cycnicsm.
“Nothing was ready. There was political turmoil and I was sceptical that it would be a success.”
Céline Dion's first apperance after a four-year battle with a voice-threatening illness to belt out Edith Piaf's song "L'hymne à l'amour" from the Eiffel Tower had turned her back from the dark side of the discourse.
“I was in tears,” Marie admitted. “And I don’t even like Céline Dion. It was the same for all my friends.”
Converted since that explosion of emotions at the opening ceremony, the 44-year-old was in café with her former London flatmate Dejan, who was visiting Paris from the Slovenian capital Ljubliana.
The duo had acquired last minute tickets at 170 euros apiece to go to the boxing at Roland Garros and the athletics at the Stade de France.
“It was worth it," said Dejan. “I tried to get tickets before but could not manage it.
Chance
"I normaly wouldn’t go to watch athletics but it was the Olympics and that makes it worthwhile. We had good weather and it was brilliant.”
