“C’est Zizou!” went the cry as one of France’s most beloved sons appeared on the screen next to the Seine – and with a blaze of red white and blue, they were off.
As a procession of boats carrying more than 8,000 of the world’s top athletes in a sporting armada along 6km of the River Seine began their journey, the visitors to Paris 2024 not among the 300,000 people allowed to watch from the bridges and riverbanks crammed into bars and restaurants to cheer as their team went by.
In Au Trappiste, a central Paris bar on the rue Saint Denis, the tables were packed with people from around the globe, sporting flags and their country’s colours. A cheer went up from the crowd as the befeathered vision of Lady Gaga appeared on screen, but it was eclipsed by a group of four Brazilian sisters when their boat appeared.
“We are just so excited to be here!” shouted Fabiola Rodrigues Martins, 26, as she and her three sisters got stuck into a bottle of vin blanc. “We are going to see Marta in women’s football. It’s going to be amazing!”
They had stopped trying to get close to the river several hours ago and had instead made the decision to ensconce themselves in a bar with table service. “We’re not moving,” she said.
It was a sensible decision. In the hours before the opening ceremony, increasingly irate French men and women and visitors to the City of Light wandered the streets around the Hôtel de Ville, where the fanzone was strictly QR-code only. “Do you know where there is a big screen?, asked one disconsolate American. “We’ve tried three places!”
During a spectacle that shut down a city centre and mobilised 45,000 police officers, the simplest of walks became labyrinthine challenges, with barriers continually thwarting progress.
Next to the Seine, a group of friends who thought they had a free ticket for the upper banks were deeply unhappy when told by police they had to move on.
“I’m really disappointed,” said 21-year-old student Aris, who was working at the Games and did not want to give his surname. “It’s well organised but it’s just a shame that the Parisians can’t see it.”
Ready with his QR-code, Franck Kier David admitted that he had parted with €500 (£422) for a seated ticket on the banks of the Seine. “The Olympics was in Paris 100 years ago and I have never been to an Olympic Games, so we have to take advantage of it,” he said.
People who did not have the correct QR-code to gain access to le Terrace des Jeux at the Hôtel de Ville, had been sent to a fanzone at the L’Académie du Climat in the same district – only to find it opened tomorrow. A gigantic screen along the entire length of the Centre Pompidou showed only advertising for Nike, and was not displaying the opening ceremony.
One volunteer, an International Relations student, looked frazzled as he was bombarded with questions about where people could find a screen to watch. “It’s not really the best that people know nothing as a result of this bof organisation,” he said.
Kwangyun Yu, who had come with his wife and two teenage daughters to watch the Olympics, was straining to see a screen in the far distance, a view obstructed by several police vans. “It is a very wonderful night to be here,” he said, with valiant positivity. “But it would be a bit better if the screen was closer and the car was not in front of it.”
As the rain poured down on those who had paid for tickets along the Seine, or who had been lucky enough to have their name picked in the draw, there was a growing atmosphere of contentment among the clientele under the awning at Au Trappiste. As mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel sang the Marseillaise, a large French contingent belted out the French national anthem to cheers from the visitors to their country.
“Hats off to the French for trying something so ambitious,” said Alan Mahoney, who had travelled to Paris from Dublin.
Soaking up the atmosphere, Charlotte Home, 24, and Jack Keaney, 27, from Stratford-upon-Avon said that they had looked at buying riverside tickets for the ceremony earlier in the day – but had balked at the price. “The cheapest was 900 and they went up to 2,500 – to sit in the rain. So we are feeling pretty smug right now,” she said. Asked what she made of the ceremony, she laughed, and said: “It’s good, but it’s not quite London 2012 is it.”
