Why go
The city’s sporting map connects several different Paris experiences. Roland Garros gives tennis a permanent home, Parc des Princes and Stade de France explain football’s scale, and Bercy Arena hosts a changing mix of indoor competition. The Champs-Élysées also frames the finish of the Tour de France, bringing a global race into the centre of Paris.
The full story
Sport has repeatedly used Paris as both host city and stage. Paris hosted the Olympic Games in 1900 and 1924, while Stade de France in Saint-Denis was built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The stadium has also held major football and rugby finals, placing large international crowds just beyond the city boundary. Within Paris, Parc des Princes is associated with football, and Bercy Arena has accommodated tennis, basketball, boxing, cycling, handball, ice hockey and show jumping. Roland Garros gives the French Open its distinctive red-clay setting and makes the 16th arrondissement a key point on the tennis calendar. Cycling reaches central Paris in a different way: the Tour de France has finished on the Champs-Élysées since 1975. These venues and routes show that Parisian sport is distributed across parks, boulevards and large purpose-built arenas rather than confined to one stadium district.