The commune of Vaires-sur-Marne is where the 2024 Olympic rowing and canoeing competitions are being held and lies to the east of Paris.
A picturesque enough spot bounding a lake, final preparations were still being carried out there upon my last visit, the day before the Opening Ceremony, when the Team Ireland canoeists and kayakers were going through their practice runs.
There was something else being practiced that day on the rowing side of the venue. Under the watchful eye of officials, a cohort of people in uniforms were folding the French and Olympic flags and hoisting them up and down the flagpoles - perhaps a future Olympic sport given it looked a tad more complicated than one would expect.
Fast forward seven days later to today and it was heartening to see the Irish tricolour going up alongside two other flags on those very same poles just to the left of the stands.
A swivel of the head to the right and down by the shoreline one could spy Ireland's latest rowing medallists Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch on a podium, bronze glinting on the front of their tracksuits, next to two other pairs, one in orange - no prizes for guessing the country - and the one in the middle in white and blue.
The latter was the Romanian men's double sculls pair who clinched gold in Thursday's A final at a sun-kissed Vaires-sur-Marne, while the Dutch had claimed silver.
Doyle and Lynch had breezed through their heat and semi-final but the duo from Banbridge, Co Down and Clonmel, Co Tipperary respectively had to work for their rewards in the final.
With the USA lurking with intent in the hope of nabbing the last medal on offer, Ireland's pair had to show resilience in the final stages of the race to claim the third spot on the podium and a first heavyweight rowing medal for Ireland at an Olympics.
"It's nice to write that into the history books," an exhausted Doyle told his RTÉ Sport interviewer David Gillick of that heavyweight feat immediately after stepping out of the boat
In the wake of Daniel Wiffen and Mona McSharry's medal-winning exploits in the pool, plus the fact that Kellie Harrington has secured a medal, the tricolour has gratefully started to show welcome signs of becoming somewhat ubiquitous during these Games.
And with the likes of gymnast Rhys McClenaghan primed to shine on the pommel horse final; the potential and recent form of the show jumping team; the possibility that one of the quartet of golfers could put themselves into contention; and more opportunities for the rowers tomorrow in the shapes of the Fermanagh duo of Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney in the men's pair, Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey in the women's lightweight double sculls, and of course, defending Olympic men's lightweight double sculls champions Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy, the sight of the tricolour being hoisted a few more times looks likely.
The record number of medals for Ireland from a single Games stands at six back at London 2012 and with four already secured in Paris, it's on track to be a record-breaking haul.
What is significant is that a nice spread of sports will be represented in the medal count this time, especially if the likes of McClenaghan can deliver on their obvious potential.
In the way that it was not pre-Rio 2016, rowing has become a bedrock of success over recent Olympics and the childhood experience of Lynch, who has been open about the fact that it was the only sport he actually liked having tried soccer, GAA and tennis, does show the opportunities that are out there for prospective sportspeople looking for their white whale off the beaten track.
Facilities would need to follow, one example being the lack of a velodrome in Ireland that has been highlighted by the track cycling team that will be in action later in the Games. Often, they go to Mallorca for training camps and will be the only track team in Paris without a velodrome at home.
There was a positive development on that front this morning though with confirmation that a 250m track is to be built at the National Sports Campus in Dublin with a targeted opening date of 2027, along with 12 badminton courts.
Build it (and other facilities) and they may come? Perhaps. But what Paris 2024 is showing is the spread of talent within Irish sport, and the heavyweight rowing duo are just the latest to give an excuse for the tricolour to be hoisted high and proud.
Watch the 2024 Olympic Games with 14 hours of televised action on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player each day. Listen to extensive radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm's Game On and follow each moment from Paris on RTÉ.ie, the RTÉ News app and all RTÉ digital platforms. Listen to the daily RTÉ Sport Olympics Podcast.
