Olympic ceremony lights up rainy Paris as Games officially begin
A hot-air balloon carried the Olympic flame into a rainy sky and Celine Dion sang from the Eiffel Tower as Paris kicked off its first Summer Olympics in a century.
On-and-off showers did not seem to hamper the enthusiasm of the athletes and some held umbrellas as they rode boats down the River Seine.
The ambitious ceremony went ahead as authorities investigated suspected acts of sabotage targeting France's high-speed rail network.
Dozens of heads of state and government were in the city and millions tuned in around the world as Paris turned itself into a giant open-air theatre.
Along the Seine, iconic monuments became stages for dancers, singers and other artists.
That included the Louvre Museum, near where French judo champ Teddy Riner and three-time Olympic champion runner Marie-Jose Perec lit the Olympic cauldron.
The cauldron was attached to a giant balloon that floated into the night - an homage to early French pioneers of manned flight.
Despite the weather, crowds crammed the Seine's banks and bridges and watched from balconies, as Olympic teams paraded in boats down the waterway that got increasingly choppy.
Many of the hundreds of thousands of spectators huddled under umbrellas, plastic ponchos or jackets as the rains intensified.
Organisers said the weather forced them to scrap some elements of the show considered too dangerous in the slippery conditions.
Lady Gaga sang in French in a prerecorded bit, with dancers shaking pink plumed pompoms, injecting a cabaret feel.
On the Eiffel Tower, Celine Dion closed the show with her first live performance since the French-Canadian singer was diagnosed stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, at the end of 2022.
In some memorable moments, French-Malian pop star Aya Nakamura, the most listened-to French-speaking artist in the world, emerged from a pyrotechnic display to sing her hit “Djadja” accompanied by a Republican guard band of the French army.
The ceremony celebrated women, including 10 golden statues of female pioneers that rose from giant pedestals along the river.
Among them was Olympe de Gouges, who drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen in 1791 during the French Revolution. She campaigned for the abolition of slavery and was guillotined in 1793.
The Paris Games aim to be the first with equal numbers of men and women competing.
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