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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Jon Henley in Paris

‘It was like us – a chaotic mess’: France enjoys Paris Games opening ceremony

Shafts of light surround the Eiffel Tower during the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony.
Shafts of light surround the Eiffel Tower during the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

They had waited 100 years for it and the French, mostly, were determined to love their kitsch, crazy, subversive, waterborne and very rain-drenched Olympics opening ceremony. Less happy were far-right figures, who spied “wokeist” propaganda.

A thoroughly unscientific poll on the rue de Rochechouart in Paris – where the far right have never had so much as a look-in – found plenty of enthusiasm.

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