When organisers first revealed plans to hold the opening ceremony along the river in the heart of the city, rather than in a stadium as is usual, there were some raised eyebrows and questions over how they would manage such a huge security operation.
The Seine itself had been under scrutiny for water cleanliness, while simply the logistics of transporting thousands of athletes along a six-kilometre stretch of river without a dress rehearsal seemed ambitious.
But on Friday evening, backed by a security operation involving tens of thousands of police, Paris pulled it off its plan in dazzling fashion.
At times it was bizarre – one moment Lady Gaga surrounded by pink and black feathers was singing in French, the next Bangladesh’s athletes were being introduced on their boat.
A lot of the time it was brilliantly frenetic and at others, emotional.
There was ballet, cancan, opera, famous artwork coming to life and even Minions – and every so often a masked torchbearer was shown running across rooftops and even zip-lining, while the flotilla made its way from Austerlitz Bridge to Pont d’Iena.
The boats with flag-waving athletes passed well-known landmarks like the Louvre museum, Eiffel Tower, Grand Palais and Arc de Triomphe and were treated to 12 artistic segments.
One segment focused on rebuilding Notre Dame, which was damaged in a fire in 2019. A large troupe of dancers were accompanied by music composed using sounds captured from the iconic cathedral’s reconstruction.
Another explored French history, with costumed singers performing music from Les Miserables and a choir of headless Marie Antoinettes accompanying French heavy metal band Gojira.
French-Malian R&B star Aya Nakamura – the world’s most-streamed French-language artist – was among the musical acts.
The ceremony ended in the Trocadero, where the nearby Eiffel Tower lit up, with the flame – which had been on an elaborate journey with a masked torchbearer and a mechanical horse – being passed to sporting greats Zinedine Zidane, Rafael Nadal, Nadia Comaneci and Serena Williams.
The quartet carried the flame on a boat towards the Louvre, where a series of French athletes and para-athletes past and present – including 100-year-old gold-medal cyclist Charles Coste – carried it and eventually handed it to Riner and Perec.
And just when you thought the ceremony could not get any more beguiling, the pair lit the 30-metre high hot air balloon that now looks like it is floating above the city.
But there was one more magical moment to come, with Dion thrilling the crowds at the Eiffel Tower with a powerful rendition of Edith Piaf’s L’Hymne a l’amour in her first performance since revealing a serious neurological condition in December 2022.
More to follow.
