Use this guide to help identify some of the major references throughout the route.
The Opening Ceremonies progressed through a series of 12 “tableaux,” which were the themes behind the performances.
The production began with enchanté (“nice to meet you” in French) and then continued with synchronicity, liberty and equality, fraternity, sisterhood, sportsmanship, festivity, darkness, solidarity, solemnity and eternity.
The event opened with the first 18 participating delegations sailing on five boats through a water curtain on the Pont d’Austerlitz bridge.
A fresco adorning the bridge depicted the sports on the Olympic program for these Games as well as several masks, a reference to the world of theater in the city.
During the Opening Ceremonies, the athletes paraded past characters with enormous heads sitting on walls along the banks of the Seine. The colorful, mascot-like characters were a tribute to the French tradition of caricature. They featured the likes of Joan of Arc, Joséphine Baker, Marie Curie and the fictional Arsène Lupin, a “gentleman thief.”
The scene of the hooded figure running across Paris rooftops is probably a familiar one for watchers of the Netflix series “Lupin,” starring French actor Omar Sy and based on the literary figure.
This masked torchbearer is based on several prominent characters in French culture, including the “Phantom of the Opera.”
As the parade wound through its “Synchronicité” stretch, viewers were treated to a choreographic sequence on the scaffolding of the Notre Dame.
A fire broke out in 2019 at the famous cathedral, which is expected to reopen to the public in December. The workers along the scaffolding presented a nod to the trades and French craftsmanship.
The Opening Ceremonies also included 500 dancers from several ensembles on the Pont Notre Dame and surrounding rooftops, a tribute to the people — and energy — of Paris. And that figure in the sky clinging to the spire of Notre Dame? That was a nod to Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
During the “Liberty” leg of the parade, there was another nod to the work of 19th century French writer Victor Hugo. A torchbearer took us through a scene from the musical “Les Misérables.”
“Ça ira,” a song symbolic of the French Revolution, was sung by choir members dressed as Marie-Antoinette, the last queen of France before the French Revolution, who was beheaded in 1793. An opera singer accompanied by French heavy metal band Gojira continued the song. The singer was on a boat, which was a reference to the one that adorns the emblem of the city of Paris.
Afterward, the torchbearer reappeared to lead viewers through the halls of the Louvre, the famed museum at the heart of Paris. The torchbearer ran in front of several paintings as characters from artwork came to life. Can you identify The Raft of the Medusa or The Coronation of Napoleon?
Between Pont Royal Bridge and Léopold Sédar-Senghor footbridge, there were giant heads inspired by paintings at the Louvre. They were facing the athletes and their floating delegations, a position meant to convey that the athletes will be the focus of attention during these Olympics.
Later, the masked torchbearer discovered that the Mona Lisa has been stolen — again. The Louvre’s most famous work of art, painted by Leonardo da Vinci, was stolen in 1911 and found in 1913.
After the masked torchbearer took a journey through time on a hot-air balloon ride that paid tribute to French inventors and authors, viewers were plunged into the Seine, where they discovered the stolen Mona Lisa had fallen into the possession of Minions. The “Despicable Me” franchise was produced by Paris-based Illumination Studios.
Later, 10 gold statues emerged from the Seine, each one honoring a prominent woman in French history.
They include Simone de Beauvoir, a philosopher and writer who played a leading role in fighting for gender equality, and Paulette Nardal, a pioneer of Black feminism and the Negritude literary movement.
Scott Allen and Emily Giambalvo contribute to this report.
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