When the Paris Olympics chose the slogan “Games wide open”, it was about more than just bringing sport out of stadiums and on to city-centre streets.

Creating temporary venues in astonishing settings – from beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower to skateboarding at the Place de la Concorde – allowed France to avoid the cumbersome “white elephant” building projects of the past, and present a greener Games.

But Paris’s theatrical sporting backdrops were also carefully designed to be a breathtaking visual showcase that would attract viewers across the world with the beauty of the Games, stunning even the athletes themselves.

As spectators gathered in the shadow of historic monuments from the Château de Versailles to the Grand Palais, and the triathlon swimmers dived into the River Seine, Paris was drawing a line under the last Games in Tokyo, which were held largely without spectators during the Covid pandemic.

Tony Estanguet, the three-time Olympic canoe champion who is the Paris Olympics’ chief organiser, talked of this summer’s Games as a magical “picture postcard”.

The temporary beach volley arena (pictured above) built under the Eiffel Tower featured imported sand and DJs blasting out music during games after dark. With its party atmosphere and picturesque backdrop, it became the defining location of the Paris Games. Emmanuel Macron called it “magnificent”.

The undulating wooden roof of the new aquatics centre in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, provided a backdrop to the diving. The groundbreaking low-carbon building is one of the only permanent new constructions for the Games and will later be used as a major public pool in an area where more than half of 11-year-olds don’t know how to swim.

Built in 1897 for the Universal exhibition of 1900, the Grand Palais hosted the fencing under its majestic, 45-metre-high, barrel-vaulted glass roof, the largest of its kind in Europe. The glass roof was draped in white covers to limit the heat and improve athletes visibility during events, with lights projected on to it.

Until the Paris Games, swimming in the Seine had been banned for more than 100 years because of the health risk from unclean water and bacteria from human waste. The €1.4bn (£1.2bn) state-backed plan to make the river swimmable for triathlon and open-water swimming athletes – who dived in at the Pont Alexandre III – was one of the longest-running and high-stakes endeavours of the Paris Games.

Place de la Concorde, the largest public square in Paris, and the site of the execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinnette during the French Revolution, was transformed into an open-air arena for urban sports, including skateboarding, breaking and BMX freestyle. Around 37,000 spectators attended each day. The Luxor Obelisk, brought to France from Egypt in the 1830s, loomed over the events.

A staggering half a million supporters gathered along Paris streets to watch the Olympic cycling road race. The route wove its way through some of the most picturesque streets of the capital, including the steep inclines of Montmartre.

The Château de Versailles, with its more than 2,000 rooms, was both the seat of the French monarchy and a symbol of the French Revolution of 1789. The Paris Olympics constructed a temporary outdoor equestrian arena to the west of the Grand Canal at the heart of the palace’s gardens. The individual and team eventing cross-country section were held alongside the Grand Canal

Key to the Paris Olympics bid was that it did not require the building of a stadium for track cycling. The ultra-modern Vélodrome, with its modular design and a vast central area, was opened in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, outside Paris, 10 years ago and hosts the French Cycling Federation.

The Stade de France in Saint-Denis – one of Europe’s largest stadiums – hosted rugby sevens and athletics, as well as the closing ceremony. The unprecedented decision to paint the track purple was made in order to stand out and create a unique image for fans, TV viewers and athletes. The track was painted lighter purple, while the technical areas around it were coloured in deep purple.

Built in 1928 on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne park in the west of Paris, the Roland-Garros stadium, which is home to the French open, hosted the Olympic tennis on its famous clay courts, then hosted the final boxing events.

The new Vaires-sur-Marne nautical stadium, which hosted rowing and canoe-kayak events, was completed in 2019 and is unique in Europe with its white-water stadium, rowing and sprint canoe-kayak course.

The French athlete Cassandre Beaugrand takes gold at the finish line in the women’s triathlon. Behind her is the gold dome of the Hôtel des Invalides, a historic military complex that houses Napoleon’s tomb.

The women’s marathon was chosen for the last day of the Paris Olympics as a celebration of women in sport. Its route retraced the steps of a French revolutionary march in which women from Paris led crowds to Versailles to bring their complaints to the king. The route went past the Louvre – one of the world’s most visited museums – and its famous glass pyramid.

• This article was amended on 11 August 2024. An earlier version said the Roland-Garros stadium was built in 1987 rather than 1897.