Spend the Night in the Musée d’Orsay’s Clock Room on the Evening of the Olympics Opening Ceremony

When the Olympics kick off in Paris on July 26, the opening ceremony will take place along the Seine. Instead of parading around inside a stadium, athletes will float down the river on boats representing each national delegation.

Soon, two lucky travelers will be able to book a front-row seat: Airbnb is offering a one-night stay in the Musée d’Orsay famous clock room, which overlooks the river.

“You step outside the bedroom onto the terrace, [and] you have the single best seat in the house for the opening ceremony,” Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s CEO, tells David Koenig of the Associated Press (AP).

French designer Mathieu Lehanneur, who created this year’s Olympic torch and cauldron, decorated the lush new space. The room features a “floating” bed suspended from the ground, a padded punching bag (a “personal sporting touch”) and an up-close look at the museum’s towering glass and steel clock, which provides “unparalleled views of the city, enhancing the beauty of the Parisian night.” According to a statement from the International Olympic Committee, it will also display a replica of the Paris 2024 torch.

“For one night only, like a marvelous apparition, the clock room will become your bedroom,” per the Airbnb listing. “Adorned entirely in wood paneling, from the Versailles parquet floor to the vaulted ceiling, this space is designed as a daydream.”

The Musée d’Orsay is renowned for its Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collections—with pieces by the likes of Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Vincent van Gogh—as well as its architecture. The building, which was constructed about 125 years ago, was a functioning railway station until 1939. Many of its original features are still intact, including the large clock.

In addition to the view of the opening ceremony, the stay includes a private tour of the museum’s Impressionist pieces. Per the listing, guests will also get a mysterious “behind-the-scenes experience to visit a space not available to the public,” though no additional details were provided.

The museum stay is part of Airbnb’s “Icons” program, a “new category of extraordinary experiences hosted by the greatest names in music, film, television, art, sports and more,” according to a statement from Airbnb. The company unveiled its first 11 icons on May 1.

While some stays—like the one at the Musée d’Orsay—are staged at existing historic landmarks, others are recreations of spaces related to pop culture. For example, Carl Fredricksen, the grumpy yet endearing retired balloon salesman from Pixar’s Up (2009), is listed as the host for a stay in a recreation of the movie’s house in Abiquiu, New Mexico.

“My house has over 8,000 balloons floating from the top of it. Ha!” writes “Fredricksen” in the listing. What’s more, the house is airborne; it will be lifted 50 feet above the New Mexico desert via a large crane.

As Airbnb tells the New York Times’ Orlando Mayorquín, the “fully functional” house is “connected to a generator and other utilities that will be disconnected and reconnected before and after flying.” However, according to the AP, guests likely won’t be inside the house when it’s lifted.

Airbnb has offered other promotional stays in the past. Guests have booked vacations at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, Barbie’s DreamHouse in Malibu, Santa Claus’ cabin in Rovaniemi, Finland, and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. For travelers interested in the Musée d’Orsay clock room, booking will open on May 21.

Julia Binswanger | READ MORE

Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.