Paris knows how to connect. So here you are being given a cigarette lighter as a spur-of-the-moment welcome gift. And jokingly told that the fire would last till the Olympic Flame does.
It should too. The Tokyo Olympics was postponed by a year and held in a subdued mood because of the coronavirus, but Paris is keen to make up for it in every way.
The Games — the third the city is hosting after 1900 and 1924 — are returning to the First World and Europe for the first time since London 2012, on a planet where the vagaries of the virus have made way for the precariousness of politics.
Across the Atlantic, a President has astonishingly pulled out of a presidential race in virtually the final lap. And here in France, the voters have handed a surprise win to the Left, quashing the rising threat from far-Right leader Marine Le Pen.
Le Pen’s tough stand against immigrants has been thwarted for the time being by the French people, whose faces light up the moment you mention football star Kylian Mbappe, whose father came from Cameroon and whose mother is an Algerian.
The wars in Ukraine and Gaza too hang heavy over the Games. Palestinian athletes received a rousing welcome in Paris and will, over the next 16 days, be expecting to get more from the spectators.
Friday promises to grace the Games with the most unique opening ceremony ever. The River Seine will play the role of the stadium track, ushering the athletes in.
Around 10,500 athletes are set to sail down a 6km stretch of the river in 85 barges
and boats.
Hundreds of thousands of people, including some 320,000 paying and invited ticket-holders, are expected to line the Seine’s banks to watch the athletes’ river parade. “Games Wide Open”, as the motto says.
Unlike most previous Games where the organisers splurged on building stadiums and later tore their hair out wondering what to do with them, Paris is banking on the temporary in the backdrop of the eternal. It’s using historical places as venues.
For instance, the archery venue is inside the Esplanade des Invalides opposite the Hotel des Invalides, which houses French military history museums and monuments, as well as the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.
With the Eiffel Tower looming in the background, the Indian women on Thursday finished fourth to enter the quarter-finals directly, as did the Indian men who finished third in the ranking round.
The Games witnessed a world record even before the official start, with 21-year-old archer Lim Si-hyeon of South Korea shooting a world and Olympic record 694.
Equestrianism will be returning to its Olympic roots. The event debuted when Paris hosted the Games in 1900. Now, equestrian royalty from around the world are gathering in France again, at the most fitting venue of all: the historic Chateau de Versailles. Calcutta’s Anush Agarwalla and his horse, Sir Caramello, are in the fray.
One Rafael Nadal too will be returning “home”, with the Roland Garros perhaps welcoming its favourite Spaniard for the last time.
There’s huge interest among the local Indians. “The Indian’s WhatsApp groups are buzzing 24x7. The torch relay images keep flooding our timelines. And once the real action begins, I’m sure it will be madness,” Avigyan Mukherjee, who works with a leading bank in Paris, said.
He was at the Grand Arc to see the torch relay on Wednesday. “Nobody wants to miss that,” he said.
Overall, the planning seems foolproof and the intent firm. The weather on Thursday was nice. The sky was blue and a gentle breeze blew.
The last time the city hosted the Olympics — exactly 100 years ago — it begat the Chariots of Fire, the 1981 film that immortalised the struggles and courage of British athletes Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams.
Hopefully, the fire will keep burning as long as the one on the Olympic Cauldron does.
