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The 26.2-mile course to Versailles and back was symbolic as well, retracing part of the 1789 women’s march on the royal gardens, a key moment from the French Revolution in which thousands of market women, shopkeepers and laborers gathered at the Hôtel de Ville, Paris’ city hall, to demand bread and arms, then marched to Versailles to bring Louis XVI back to the capital.

So the marathon course, which started at the seven-century-old Hôtel de Ville, near the Notre Dame cathedral, and passed the Palais Garnier opera house, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower on its way to the finish line at the Esplanade des Invalides, was one of the most challenging in Olympic history.

The Hôtel de Ville hosted the start of the men’s and women’s marathons in Paris.

When I was in Paris a while back, I made my way into the august French Renaissance-style city hall, the Hotel de Ville, and up to the office of Audrey Pulvar, the deputy mayor in charge of sustainable food and agriculture and the systems to make them possible.

Another fan zone is L’Hotel de Ville - Paris’ city hall - which has two big screens and a raised terrace where people can watch the sunset over the Seine.