SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Ooh la la - a 4-mile-long procession of Olympic athletes that took four hours to float through the heart of the French capital. Despite the security risks and the rain, Paris pulled off a spectacular opening ceremony for the Summer Olympic Games. Some 400,000 people watched from the banks of the Seine River. More than a billion people tuned in around the planet. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley saw all of it close up. Eleanor, thanks for being with us.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Great to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: What was it like to be there?
BEARDSLEY: Extraordinary, audacious, impertinent, full of surprises. You know, Paris became an open-air theater last night, with performances along rooftops, the riverbanks, the monuments. Twelve amazing tableaus unfolded with scenes like liberty and darkness. Lady Gaga owned Ile de la Cite, performing with pink plumes on a piano. A French Revolution scene with a hard rock band and Marie Antoinette's decapitated head speaking from a window in the castle where she was actually held prisoner before her guillotining. A hooded medieval character ran across the Paris rooftops with the Olympic flame. A glowing white horseman galloped down the middle of the river. Dancers hung beautifully from the scaffolding of Notre Dame.
SIMON: Any room for the - you know, the athletes?
BEARDSLEY: Of course. There were 85 boats carrying 6,800 waving athletes from 205 nations. They sailed by in the river procession in the middle of it all. They looked excited with smiles on their faces. Something we haven't seen in the last two Olympics because of COVID. Scott, did I mention the stunning light show at the Eiffel Tower?
SIMON: (Laughter).
BEARDSLEY: And...
SIMON: I think you just did. Yeah, go ahead.
BEARDSLEY: Yeah. It all ended with the flame coming back down the river in a speedboat driven by tennis stars Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, USA sprinter Carl Lewis and Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci - remember her?...
SIMON: Yes.
BEARDSLEY: ...To the Tuileries Gardens, where it was lifted up into the dark Paris sky over the Louvre in a hot-air balloon while Celine Dion, who hasn't sung in four years...
SIMON: Oh.
BEARDSLEY: ...Belted out a classic from French icon Edith Piaf.
SIMON: Oh, my word. Such - I got to tell you, the Marie Antoinette stuff shook me up a bit. Such a spectacular production. Any problems?
BEARDSLEY: Well, the rain. It came down almost the whole time, but it didn't bother everyone. We spoke to Daniella Rodriguez (ph) from New Jersey. Listen to her.
DANIELLA RODRIGUEZ: It was very neat, but it was worth it, definitely. I liked Celine Dion, everything on the river, the horse just floating through the water but carrying the flame through the river, too.
BEARDSLEY: You know, and this morning, Scott, I spoke to my neighbor, 70-year-old Pierrette Peacock (ph), who said she was glued to her TV for four hours last night. Listen to her.
PIERRETTE PEACOCK: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: She said it was pure magic, a huge moment for France. And she added that she was also relieved that everything went well.
SIMON: There were those attacks on the high-speed train network in the early hours of yesterday. How did that affect the ceremony?
BEARDSLEY: Yeah, that sabotage - coordinated sabotage - you know, briefly crippled train service. The huge investigation is underway. But, you know, it didn't affect the ceremony, but it made people a little jittery before the opening. The security's been massive. They had to anticipate threats from the sky, the ground, the water, even under the water. They used sonar and antidrones. There were 50,000 police officers and soldiers on the streets of the capital. Scott, they closed the Paris airspace for six hours. That's unprecedented.
SIMON: And now the Games begin, don't they?
BEARDSLEY: Absolutely. We've got two weeks. Today, we have a big race - 400-meter freestyle, women's. It's set to be the clash of three giants who've held the world record - Australian Ariarne Titmus, budding Canadian star Summer Mcintosh, and Katie Ledecky, the best U.S. swimmer, who said this week, she is ready.
SIMON: NPR's Eleanor Beardsley in Paris. You're going to have a great time. Good work, Eleanor. Thanks so much.
BEARDSLEY: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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