Photo: Damien Meyer Agence France-Presse The Greek delegation parades in front of spectators near the Austerlitz bridge during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Agence France-Presse in Paris
Published yesterday at 1:17 p.m. Updated yesterday at 2:53 p.m.
- Europe
The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games began Friday evening on the Seine, an unprecedented nautical parade preceded by hours of tension, between rain and sabotage of the French railway network.
This is the first time that a Games opening ceremony has taken place outside an Olympic stadium. An extraordinary bet, logistical, artistic and security, for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and for France, which has been waiting for a century to organize the Summer Games.
This challenge will have to be met with an unwelcome guest: the rain, which is expected to intensify in the second part of the evening, when night falls on the river procession.
The show began with a short film showing comedian Jamel Debbouze entering the completely empty Stade de France, torch in hand, before passing it to a French icon, Zinedine Zidane. The former No. 10 of the Blues embarks on a race that takes him through the metro and the catacombs to pass the torch to a trio of children. They reappear in the flesh in a boat on the Seine.
A mixture of live performance along the Seine and broadcast images, the show begins in parallel with the parade of delegations.
It traces the journey of a mysterious masked torchbearer across the rooftops and bridges of Paris, on a zip line, in Notre-Dame, in artisans’ workshops.
Photo: Adrian Wyld The Canadian Press The Canadian delegation
Magical travel
From the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Trocadéro, an announced figure of 6,800 athletes from 205 delegations, embarked on 85 boats, must now descend the river during an unprecedented parade, during a ceremony lasting nearly four hours, a prelude to two weeks of competitions until August 11.
Greece, the country of ancient Olympism, opened the parade, which will be closed, as is traditional, by the delegation of the host country, in front of 320,000 spectators who were expected on the quays and bridges of Paris.
Between the two, on their countries' boats, the Americans Sha'carri Richardson and Simone Biles, the Serbian Novak Djokovic and the Swede Mondo Duplantis have the opportunity to enjoy a six-kilometer journey, at the foot of the most emblematic monuments of the City of Lights: Notre-Dame and its spire restored after the 2019 fire, the Louvre, the Tuileries, the Concorde, the Grand-Palais and then the Eiffel Tower.
Sites that will also host events starting Saturday, judo, beach volleyball, archery the arc…
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The director, Thomas Jolly, who has been working on the subject for 18 months, had to pull off a feat: to include in this odyssey all the Olympic rituals, right down to the lighting of the cauldron, including the proclamation of the opening of the Games by Emmanuel Macron shortly after 10:30 p.m.
Named Ça ira, the show will offer twelve tableaux, animated by around 2,000 artists — actors, dancers, jugglers, musicians — who will celebrate the history of France, its culture, but also universalism and diversity.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000Parade of stars
The American Lady Gaga, who covered a standard by Zizi Jeanmaire, music hall star and incarnation of Paris in the 1950s, opened the parade of stars who will take part in this show.
An astonishing association followed: Gojira, a French metal group with an international aura, teamed up with French-Swiss opera singer Marina Viotti to perform Ah! It will go, French revolutionary song.
The Franco-Malian Aya Nakamura, the most listened to French-speaking singer in the world, took over with a standard by Charles Aznavour, For me Formidable, followed by a medley with two of his hits Pookie and Djadja.
Quebec's Céline Dion could follow, according to the predictions.< /p> 
Photo: Fabrice Coffrini Agence France-Presse Spectators in rain gear sit before the opening ceremony.
Paris ultra-secure
For several days, the hypercentre of Paris has been sealed off, accessible only to those with their sesame, accreditation or QR code. Admitted with an umbrella if they wished, provided that it was retractable or foldable for security reasons, the spectators had all entered the perimeter before 8 p.m., according to the police headquarters.
Armelle Lanci, 54, a school principal who arrived early and slipped a parka into her bag, is happy to be there: “There is a very good atmosphere, you can hear all the languages being spoken, it's great,” she says.
A couple of tourists from Mexico City got two front-row seats on the Pont du Carrousel. “We’re privileged,” says Selene Martinez, 42, alongside her partner Israel Tejada.
A hundred dignitaries, including 85 heads of state and government, welcomed in the afternoon at the Élysée Palace, are present, some of whom will face the elements due to the lack of coverage of the entire official stand.
Never before have so many police forces been mobilized, with 45,000 police officers and gendarmes, and 10,000 soldiers.
While local residents watched the parade from their balconies, 100,000 spectators paid for their tickets, at prices of up to 2,700 euros; around 220,000 were invited to take a seat on the upper quays of the river. Provided they had not given up, discouraged by the weather forecast or the railway chaos.
During the night from Thursday to Friday, network infrastructure was indeed the target of damage in several regions, including arson attacks. “A massive attack to paralyze the network,” according to the SNCF. Among the 800,000 passengers affected according to the SNCF, the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, had to change his plans and flew to Paris. The perpetrators and sponsors of this attack are not known at this time.
The French rail network sabotaged before the opening ceremony
The French railway company suffered a “massive attack” on the night of Thursday to Friday, which seriously disrupted the circulation of its trains for “the whole weekend”, leaving 800,000 passengers in suspense, including athletes.
Fiber optic cables running in gutters located near the tracks and guaranteeing the transmission of safety information for drivers (red lights, points, etc.) were cut and set on fire at various locations on the network, causing a huge mess in the early hours of Friday morning.
The TGV Atlantique line, which connects Paris to Brittany in the west of the country, but also the southwest, was the most affected. No trains were able to run in either direction until early afternoon and around fifty of them were cancelled.
Rail traffic then resumed, but with only one train in three running.