After an Olympic opening ceremony on river Seine, the Paralympic Games will also open outside the stadiums on Wednesday, August 28. The organisers have chosen a moving setting, stretching from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. Artistic director Thomas Jolly has once again stepped away from tradition of inaugural ceremonies.
For nearly three hours, the City of Light will be transformed into a stage. Fifty thousand spectators are expected to attend the ceremony, which will begin at 7:40pm local time. Paris has chosen the iconic Champs-Elysees avenue and the historic Place de la Concorde to host the opening ceremony.
The prestigious avenue sweeping through the 8th arrondissement to the west of central Paris is dotted with cafes, palaces and luxury shops and connects the Arc de Triomphe in the west with Place de la Concorde in the east in a single straight line. The Champs-Elysees Tens of thousands of people daily throng the two-kilometre-long tree-lined artery with its wide sidewalks. It has long been for French a place of celebrations and popular gatherings.
It was there in 1960 that American actress Jean Seberg appeared in Jean-Luc Godard’s legendary new wave film “Breathless” selling copies of the New York Herald Tribune. On Wednesday it will be the scene of a popular parade, open to everyone and involving up to more than 180 delegations and 4,400 para-Olympians. France has celebrated two football World Cup victories there, the traditional military parade.