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PARIS — Sorry, Rose Bowl. We’ve found a better sunset.
The finest stadium view on Earth has been around for all of three months … and it’ll be gone every bit as quickly. The beach volleyball venue at the Paris Olympics is a vibrant arena, full of energetic fans cheering an intense, high-speed sport that’s already one of the coolest in the Games. As if that’s not enough, the advantage gets just flat-out unfair when you see the Eiffel Tower rising behind the stadium’s north wall.
Come on, just look at this view:
Name a stadium, any stadium. This one’s better. Baseball fields like PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Busch Stadium in St. Louis and Dodger Stadium look out on cities … but those cities aren’t freaking Paris.
The fans in attendance at the first full day of beach volleyball competition got themselves an unprecedented gift: A gorgeous Eiffel Tower sunset at an Olympic venue. As rain gave way to a setting sun that cast ribbons of rose and cerulean blue across the sky, the Eiffel Tower stood in silhouette. Then its golden lights began to glow, and almost surely every single one of the thousands of people in the stands and milling around on the parkland outside lifted their phones for shot after shot.
One enterprising artist set up an easel and canvas and painted the spectacular sunset even as the United States women thrashed Canada. His work was good — very good — but still no match for the sky above.
This was the view that Paris should have had for the Opening Ceremony, a perfect tableau for the world’s most famous structure. The rain didn’t allow for that on Friday, but Mother Nature made up for it a tiny bit on Saturday night. Beach volleyball runs right up until the Olympics’ final full day, all the better to allow for every opportunity to take in this masterpiece of architecture and vision.
The reason why this pairing works so well is it’s genius meeting genius. The Eiffel Tower is a 1,083-foot-tall testament to humanity’s ability to dream big and transcend limitations. What better background for the finest athletes in the world … or, at least, on sand?
The beach volleyball venue won’t last forever. When the Games are gone, it will be too. But maybe that’s for the best. It’s like a perfect summer day sliding into twilight — something you can’t ever duplicate, but something you’ll remember forever.