Acclaimed French-Moroccan author Leïla Slimani details her role in this evening’s historic opening ceremony Photo: Getty There are just hours to go until the highly anticipated Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony kicks off, and Leïla Slimani is feeling impatient. At least that was the case yesterday, when the French-Moroccan author spoke with Vogue Arabia over the phone from Spain. The acclaimed creative , who was awarded the prestigious Prix Goncourt for her hair-raising, killer-nanny novel Chanson douce in 2016, was tapped to co-write spectacle alongside historian Patrick Boucheron and television screenwriter Fanny Herrero (of Dix pour cent fame).
The trio collaborated for nearly a year during a process that included Zoom brainstorms, midnight phone calls, and trips to Paris for secret meetings along the Seine, where the colossal event will take place. Slimani is also nervous — about the rain, about something going wrong. After all, more than 100 heads of state and government will be in attendance and 300,000 spectators are expected to line the river.
The floating procession will see around 100 boats carrying an estimated 10,5000 athletes for six kilometers, passing landmarks such as Notre Dame and the Louvre. “I am not in Paris, I am going to be watching from afar,” she shares. “In any event, I don’t like crowds, so I don’t want to watch it there.
I’ll see it on television.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Olympic Games (@olympics) M.