Our Blog - Paris Olympics 2024 - Opening Ceremonies, Paris France

Our in-Paris Olympic experience didn't start until a few days after the Opening Ceremonies, but we planned our day so that we could be sitting in front of the TV for the whole broadcast. We watched the French broadcast, so I didn't get to experience it with Peyton Manning. What you will see are pictures of our television set, and I assume that the broadcasts in other countries had similar pictures although I may have a couple different ones.

I started with the "pre-game" broadcast, where they showed the various dignitaries meeting with President Macron and his wife Brigitte. Keeping with her trend of wearing shades of blue, she was a pastel blue tailored top, skirt, and matching shoes. Brigitte Macron has had a strong relationship with the Louis Vuitton brand for many years, and chose a beige Louis Vuitton coat dress.

The ceremonies kicked off at Austerlitz Bridge with plumes of smoke in the colors of the French flag. There was also a story-line that went through the ceremonies, featuring former French soccer player and icon, Zinedine Zidane. He started with the torch and gets on the metro, only to have the metro train shut down. He hands it to 3 kids, who take it through the famous catacombs, where they meet up with a mysterious hooded/masked character who takes the torch the rest of the way. The mysterious torchbearer was inspired by a number of characters from French culture: Belphégor, the Man in the Iron Mask, the main character from Phantom of the Opera, and Arsène Lupin. He is seen running through or on top of various famous sites, like the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay, the Pont Neuf bridge, and along the Seine in a boat. He is seen at the end as well.

The athlete boats headed down from the Austerlitz Bridge, passing by Ile Saint-Louis and Ile de Cite, where you can see Notre Dame, still with some scaffolding and a crane.

Lady Gaga was shown in a pre-recorded number (she was not even listed on the program given to the media ahead of time, it seems), singing “Mon Truc en Plumes,” a song by French singer Zizi Jeanmaire.

A local metal rock band, Gojira, played from the windows and balconies of the Conciergerie, the famous building where Queen Marie Antoinette was held captive during the French Revolution prior to being taken to the guillotine. There was also a headless Marie Antoinette and canons of fire shot off periodically to symbolize the French Revolution.

A few teams, starting with the athletes from Greece, who are always first, followed by the Refugee team. It was interesting to see all of the various teams, some of them in traditional clothes and others just in jackets. They all seemed to be really enjoying the Parade of Countries, even with the rain, which continued through the whole ceremony. At the end were the US team (because the US team is the host of the next summer games in 2028) and the French team (as the host country). The flag bearers for the US, LeBron James and Coco Gauff, can be seen in the 1st US picture. The surfing athletes also got their part in the ceremony, with a view of them in Tahiti where the surfing will take place.

The silver-casted mechanical horse with a rider, who some said was meant to symbolize Joan of Arc, went up the Seine and then the rider switched to a real horse for the rest of the way, and delivered the Olympic Flag to the main ceremony area.

Another musical act, singer Aya Nakamura sang with a live band courtesy of the French Republican Guard. There was (it seems) a bit on controversy over whether or not she should be part of the ceremony because while she is HUGE in France, she is actually from Mali. The performance took place on the Pont des Arts between the Louvre (shown with the band) and the Institut de France (with the fireworks).

The athletes made their way down to Pont d'Iéna, which goes between the Eiffel Tower and Trocadéro (which is home to several museums and the aquarium), where the Olympic flag was raised and then (after a couple speeches), President Macron announced that the games were "Open". I mentioned that the torchbearer and Zidane were seen at the end ... Zidane got the torch back from the masked torchbearer, and then hands it to Rafael Nadal. He then takes it down to the Seine, boarding a boat along with Serena Williams, Nadia Comaneci, and Carl Lewis, who take the torch down to the Louvre. It is handed off to Ameli Mauresmo (tennis player) and then NBA player Tony Parker (who, in spite of a very non-French name, is French), and then a few people who I didn't recognize. One of the final torchbearers was France’s 100-year-old Olympic champion Charles Coste, who won a gold medal in the 1948 Olympics in London. The torch was taken into the courtyard of the Louvre and then through the Tuileries Gardens, where the Olympic cauldron was. After it was lit, the cauldron then rose over Paris in a hot air balloon, recalling the first manned flight in a hydrogen-filled gas balloon by France's Montgolfier brothers in 1783.

I must say, I could have done with a bit less of the dancing during the 5-hourish ceremony. But I was really impressed how smoothly it seemed to have run and how they attempted to really be very inclusive in the ceremony while highlighting some parts of French history, culture, and the amazing sites in Paris. It was really a shame that it rained throughout the entire event, but it (in my opinion) was a great show. And the ending, with Celine Dion, was worth waiting 5 hours for.