Olympic Games 2024: opening night

“Even in the rain, it’s an achievement,” a drenched but jubilant reader writes to us from his stands, Pont de l’Alma, on the left bank, midway through the games’ opening ceremony. People start slow dancing in the fan zones. Another sends us a message from a more sheltered location, the Hotel Cheval Blanc. Everywhere, night falls faster than expected, clouds and rain obscuring the last lights. What is the weather like when it rains? The city is cut off between its center and the rest. Paris was full all along the Seine. Tourists and Celine Dion fans arrived at the same time as the rain, which did not scare anyone. In these districts, parallel to the Seine, we hear an ocean of foreign languages, following each other in the streets, like the boats of the countries of the Seine. It feels like a techno parade, but the floats are on the water. Is the night finally settled?

We were in despair for a week. And then, around the Royal Palace, around the Samaritans, people appeared as if they came out of a den. Those who don’t have a seat near the Sen wander through the clusters in search of a parallel ceremony, unless that TV screen is bigger than the others. Beyond this center, the city changes slightly. Heading to Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est, spirits are tense but not too excited. It must be the rain that upsets the most sentimental people a little. We walk around the neighborhood from one bar to another, watching their screens facing the street. Every cafe, every terrace seems to have its own little community that comes to watch the games start. We stop for a few minutes here, then there, moving from one terrace to another. People are standing, increasingly eager, watching for what will happen, the show’s next big moment and strongest moment, whatever it may be. “The ceremony is more beautiful on television, at least we see everything.” Entertainment society, new version.

We catch two men, engrossed in their glasses, bitters and red spirits, wondering about a post by Emmanuel Macron, who captioned a photo of Aya Nakamura with the hard-to-understand caption “at the same time.” “Hasn’t Jaja been president for a while? “We hear them laughing, referring to Aya’s hit. Suddenly everything sounded louder, screams, joy, endless laughter. We quickly rush to the cafe from where these sounds are coming, so as not to miss this excitement-inducing image. On the screen is Zidane’s head. “Zizou!” We all scream together as if replaying the victory of July 12, 1998 and the header of July 9, 2006. July is Zidane’s month. “France is Zizu’s smile!!! ” shouted the emotional and happy audience. He recognizes the great Carl Lewis less readily, but waves his hands in the air to the first notes of Cerrone’s disco hit, “Supernatural,” which are instantly recognizable.

The Last Arp Odyssey

One of the most listened to French songs in the world since its creation in 1977. Listening to it in the rain in Paris, we remember that this song was created by mistake; Cerrone told us a few years ago that after a new synthesizer arrived for the song, the then state-of-the-art Arp Odyssey, which he didn’t know how to use, he started playing a few random notes on the keyboard, and the composition was born like that, the result: random experiment. Tonight she is doing a city dance in the rain. One of the friends sends us a distress message. “My girlfriend just dumped me.” In order not to leave him alone, we told him to join us in a space inaccessible to the sadness and sadness that cannot be allowed to spread tonight; evenings that will last the duration of the games. It’s called Fan Zoo and will be played tonight by the impeccable DJ Sundae. No one knows how to make the most melancholy people dance better than he does. Around 5:55am, the girl still hasn’t called back, but the party has just started, like the rain that can’t be stopped.