Paris 2024 organizers lied to you. The Olympics had two closing ceremonies. Stade de France, on Sunday August 11, preceded the final tour of the Seine on Saturday. For all the tens of thousands of marathon runners drummed their sneakers on the tarmac for a night on the capital’s streets. Thousands of spectators on the Parisian route from the Hotel de Ville to the Invalides never tire of cheering them on, usually for 7 hours.e The metropolis sleeps.
At midnight, on the last kilometer of the route, a rock group based on the Avenue de Preteuil plays telephone notes. “I Dreamed of Another World” echoes in front of the dome of the Invalides where Napoleon rests. A couple improvises a rock song. Farther away, behind the buildings, a hot air balloon floats into the sky in a basin. The flow of runners does not stop, but time seems frozen. If Maurice Chevalier had sung that “Paris will always be Paris, the most beautiful city in the world”During these Games, Paris would have been Paris, but better.
It all started on a gray day. One day “blue”The Anglo-Saxons would call it a depressed color. On the morning of Friday July 26, heavy rain lashed the capital and trains were not running in France – blocked on platforms by coordinated vandals. All the planets seemed to conspire to prove to those who promised that the Olympic Games were a disastrous fate. Sean’s opening was going to be a washout, and the audience was abandoned on the station platforms. Ambitions are kept in the locker room.
Paris emerged from the streets, which had been banned for a week to keep the river away from security risks. Hours before the ceremony, the atmosphere was electrifying as every bridge was cordoned off by police. “Fun Olympics”A cyclist prevents crossing between Gare de Lyon and Gare d’Austerlitz. Mass was said.
Applause
Then, something dawned on the capital. As Thomas Jolly’s curtain raised at Olympia revealed another city. By 11 p.m., Paris was watery and deserted, but the terraces of bars and restaurants sent back an echo that we thought was reserved for matches of the French soccer team or PSG.
On screens, Zidane, Nadal, hot air balloon. of “ah”of “yes” And applause. And then Celine. Celine Dion on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. We didn’t see any laser games lighting up the monument from the Bastille terrace love song. A little closer to the screen, we watched the Olympic cycle for the first time in four years to see the world star sing again.
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