The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games – the first ever to be organised outside a stadium – has unfurled on the Seine River against a spectacular backdrop of the capital’s most celebrated monuments. Here are some takeaways: 1. It rained .
.. a lot “Jeux pluvieux, jeux heureux,” suggested the TV commentators, in mild desperation: a rainy Games is a happy Games.
Four hours before the start, Météo France issued a yellow alert for the Paris region, warning of “continual, at times intense rainfall, with risk of flooding”. And rain it did, on a sporting armada of 8,000 of the world’s top athletes sailing down 6km of the Seine on 90 boats – as dancers, singers, tightrope walkers, acrobats, breakers and drag queens performed on water, rooftops, bridges and artificial islands for 300,000 spectators. Last month it rained so much that the Seine was running four or five times faster than its summer norm, prompting concern from the director of ceremonies, Thierry Reboul, that “if the river’s flowing too quickly, the boats will outrun” the show.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen. And though it rained – an awful lot – on France’s parade, it honestly didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm. 2.
Lady Gaga did a good Zizi Jeanmaire Surrounded by a posse of black-clad male and female dancers clutching pink feather fans, Lady Gaga gave a spirited rendition, in pretty passable French, of Mon truc en plumes by the legendary dancer, actor and singer Ziz.