Fencing at the historic Grand Palais in Paris is one of the most popular views at the 2024 Olympics

PARIS (AP) — When attendees entered the Grand Palais Monday for early afternoon Paris Olympics fencing bouts, they couldn’t help but stop and look around before going to their seats.

They gazed up at the sweeping glass roof, some placed their hands to their mouths in awe of its beauty, then marveled at the mint green columns that frame the nave of the historic building.

“It’s just incredible,” said Rhiannon Kinnear, a sabre competitor from Glasgow, Scotland, who was visiting Paris but not competing at the Olympics.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a fencing venue like it. The glass everywhere, the pillars. It’s an amazing contrast as well with the lighting. Nowhere better for fencing, I don’t think,” she said.

Built in 1900 for the Paris Universal Exhibition, the Grand Palais is a beloved site in the heart of Paris, right between the River Seine and Champs-Élysées. It’s known for hosting all kinds of prestigious events, from art exhibitions to concerts and fashion shows.

It is the stage for fencing and taekwondo at the 2024 Olympics thanks to a three-year renovation project. It has been closed to the public since 2021 for the upgrades and is becoming at must-see site at the 2024 Games.

The Grand Palais is not a typical sports venue, but rather a glass time capsule of French culture.

It was used as a military hospital during World War I. Cyclists in the Tour de France raced through the steel and glass structure in 2017. Catwalk shows for high fashion designers like Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Sonia Rykiel have taken place there. The late pop superstar Prince performed two concerts under the glass roof in October 2009.

The Olympic competitors dance back and forth right in the center of the nave.

“Paris just has made the Olympics so chic and so beautiful,” said Jackie Meinhardt, who came from San Francisco to watch her brother-in-law Gerek Meinhardt and his wife Lee Kiefer compete for the U.S. Kiefer won her second Olympic gold medal in foil fencing Sunday.

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“It’s incredible to watch fencing in this venue because fencing is such a classic sport that doesn’t get the same attention back in America as it does here in Europe,” Jackie Meinhardt, said.

It was not her first time at the Grand Palais. She also saw Gerek Meinhardt, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist in men’s foil, compete there in the World Fencing Championships in 2010.

“You can tell that they spent a lot of time resurrecting these,” she said, looking up at the stands.

Ethan Llewellyn, another visitor from Glasgow, said the environment speaks to the innovation and creativity of the Paris Olympics, from the transformation of the prestigious Grand Palais into an exciting sports scene to the technology used in the fencing bouts themselves.

“It’s an old sport,” Llewellyn said. “Fencing is one of the ones that hasn’t changed in a really long time, and it’s been around the Olympics since it started. But to see it working with technology in such a modern way, that’s very exciting.”

According to its website, the Grand Palais has the largest glass roof in Europe with 6,000 tons of steel used in its construction. Few fencing venues compare, said Llewellyn, who competes in the men’s sabre but isn’t part of Britain’s Olympic team.

“Better than the one in London (at the 2012 Olympics), I’ve got to say that,” he added with a laugh. “For me this is the best one yet. The atmosphere is insane. And that’s partly the crowd but it’s also created by the area as well.”

The view was better than Flo Bourgier could have imagined. He moved to Paris three years ago from a quiet city in the middle of France to work with the 2024 Paris Olympics team in the technology division. The Grand Palais was high on his list of attractions, and he has been waiting for it to reopen.

“I don’t really care about fencing to be honest,” Bourgier said. “I just came here to enjoy the vibe, the view. You feel history here because it’s a building from 1900. I have goosebumps just talking about it and seeing (it) for the first time. I am fully free. I think it’s unbelievable to be here.”