Programme Entrances to the venue were opened at 17:30
CEST with the ceremony starting two hours later at 19:30 CEST.
Prologue marking the start of the Parade of Nations After everyone was seated and the
Olympic torch relay ended its metropolitan leg around the area surrounding the
Stade de France, the artistic portion began with a pre-recorded video (with footage of past opening ceremonies of the Games) of comedian
Jamel Debbouze as a torchbearer carrying the flame into an empty Stade de France, having not realized that the opening ceremony would be held outside the stadium. Debbouze wonders where the attendees are before clips play of newscasters around the world reporting that the ceremony would not be in a stadium, but instead along the Seine. He is approached by footballer
Zinedine Zidane, who takes the torch through the city streets, leaping through a traffic jam, disrupting people at a cafe and attracting the attention of a trio of children representing the three times Paris has hosted the Games. Zidane then heads into the
Paris Métro, which is decorated with posters from previous Games on its billboards, and boards a train about to depart. Before the train can leave the station, it breaks down, prompting Zidane to pass the torch to the children through the train window. After traversing the
Catacombs of Paris and the legendary underground lake beneath the , the children are approached by a mysterious hooded and masked torchbearer rowing a boat. The trio climb aboard, putting on life jackets that are colored after the French flag and as they begin their journey to the outside world, the camera pans up to the Trocadéro stage to present in live format the authorities present at the ceremonies:
Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, and
Emmanuel Macron, president of the French Republic, as they stand up to welcome the crowd. After that, the boat is rowed through a tunnel, into a light that shines to reveal the phrase "" (literally, "will happen"; figuratively, "it'll be fine") as the boat arrived on the Seine. The parade then began on the
Pont d'Austerlitz bridge (decorated in Olympic theming), as pyrotechnics in the
tricolour of the
flag of France, and jets of water from the Seine opened the
Parade of Nations. The masked torchbearer was the main protagonist of the opening ceremony, serving as a connecting thread throughout the ceremony similar to how
Nikki Webster was the main star of the opening ceremony of the
2000 Summer Olympics as the hero girl. The torchbearer character made appearances between segments in pre-recorded scenes, and live on the Seine, the rooftops of Paris, the city's landmarks and shows up in the middle of the performances. The torchbearer represented several mysterious masked French heroes, such as
Arsène Lupin,
the Phantom of the Opera,
Fantômas and
Phantom R, as well as modern depictions of the Olympic spirit and a diversity of characteristics of French culture. It was anticipated that the masked torchbearer would reveal themself at the end of the ceremony and light the cauldron, Shortly after the ceremony ended,
professional tag player Clément Dumais wrote on Twitter that a total of 12 people had portrayed the character during the four-hour ceremony, including
parkour artist Simon Nogueira, while ruling out his own participation.
Enchanté The first sequence, '''' (enchant/delight), accordionist Félicien Brut was sitting at the top of Pont d'Austerlitz played a rendition of
Édith Piaf's "
La Foule" began the first of the four blocs of the parade with the
Greek delegation and the
Refugee Olympic Team, and through to the
Bahraini delegation. alluded to "a
cabaret feel" with a performance of "", made famous by
vedette Zizi Jeanmaire, on a golden staircase beside a black grand piano below at the southeast point of . The singer wore a black satin bustier under a black feather jacket and welcomed the audience by saying "" ("Good evening, welcome to Paris"). Recalling Piaf's song "
La Vie en rose", the parade resumed with the
Bangladeshi through
Chinese delegations passing by the decorated with large old postcards of Parisian monuments from the
Belle Époque era printed in pink and populated with a crowd of characters dressed in pink waving at them, including big head versions of famous French historical figures and characters and the
Olympic Phryge in its only appearance at the ceremony. This scene was a reference to the
La Rue Montorgueil painting by
Claude Monet. The three children and the masked torchbearer showed up in the pink crowd and the children handed the Olympic torch to the torchbearer, who ran off with it and headed onto the rooftops with the torch in their hand. Dancers from the
Moulin Rouge, also dressed in pink, then danced at the , to the music of the
French can-can "Galop infernal" from
Jacques Offenbach's opera
Orpheus in the Underworld. The sequence ended with the masked torchbearer crossing the river on a zip line.
Synchronicité passing into the '''' segment. The second sequence, '''' (synchronicity), started with a dance tribute by 420 people to the reconstruction teams of
Notre-Dame repairing the cathedral following its
2019 fire and to artisans in general, held on
Île de la Cité. This sequence featured French-Senegalese dancer
Guillaume Diop on the rooftop of the
Hôtel de Ville and Olympic champions
Martin Fourcade of France and
Michael Phelps of the United States. Aside from the Notre-Dame's reconstruction, the sequence also highlighted the making of the Olympic medals in their three metals at the
Monnaie de Paris and the
Louis Vuitton cases that carry them.
Liberté The third sequence, '
(liberty), was themed after the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror and their aftermath. In a pre-recorded scene at the , the torchbearer witnesses a performance of "A la volonté du peuple" (the original French version of "Do You Hear the People Sing?") by a group of actors playing in the musical ' with homage to
Eugène Delacroix's
Liberty Leading the People, which then cuts to live footage of the façade of the
Conciergerie. In one of its windows, a beheaded
Marie Antoinette (who was imprisoned at the site before eventually being guillotined) sang the opening notes of , joined by heavy metal band
Gojira playing enthusiastically, perched on small platforms that stuck out from other windows. Mezzo-soprano
Marina Viotti joined Gojira in the latter half of the song, before performing a rendition of the "
L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" from
Georges Bizet's opera
Carmen, all done while "sailing" along the on a float in the shape of the boat present on the
coat of arms of Paris. Actors , Léa Luce Busato, and Elan Ben Ali performed a pre-recorded seduction scene at the of the site of the to French literature titles including:
Romances Sans Parole (Romances Without Words) by
Paul-Marie Verlaine, 1874;
Bel-Ami (Nice Friend) by
Guy de Maupassant, 1885; ''
On Ne Badine Pas Avec L'amour (No Trifling with Love) by Alfred de Musset, 1834; Passion Simple
(Simple Passion) by Annie Ernaux, 1992; Sexe Et Mensonges
(Sex and Lies) by Leila Slimani, 2021; Le Diable Au Corps (The Devil in the Body) by Raymond Radiguet, 1923; Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Relationships) by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, 1782; Les Amants Magnifiques
(The Magnificent Lovers) by Molière, 1670; and Le Triomphe De L'amour'' (The Triumph of Love) by
Pierre de Marivaux, 1732. The scene also addressed diverse forms of love (including LGBT themes and polyamory) expressed by acrobats from the XY company, circus artists from the Gratte-Ciel company, and tightrope walker , performing live at the . The sequence ended with a red heart drawn in the sky with trails of colored smoke by planes of the
Patrouille de France.
Égalité The
Republican Guard marching band played the introduction of by
Charles Aznavour on the footbridge, opening the fourth sequence,
Égalité (equality). During the band's performance, the masked torchbearer turned up and used the Olympic flame to light up the stage for French singer
Aya Nakamura, who performed a mashup of three songs: "
Pookie", "
Djadja" and some stanzas from "", in front of the
Institut de France in a special brass version with the
Choir of the French Army and musicians of the Republican Guard.
Fraternité The fifth sequence, '''' (fraternity/brotherhood), began with
Camille Saint-Saëns' "
Danse macabre" and the masked torchbearer at the
Louvre seeing characters from the paintings and the statues emerging and coming to life, reminiscent of the
Night at the Museum films, and finding
Leonardo da Vinci's
Mona Lisa absent, stolen from its protective chamber (a reference to
its theft in 1911). The parade resumed through the section of the river decorated with giant board heads of the characters from the paintings facing behind the parade with the
Cypriot through
Gabonese delegations, as pianist
Alexandre Kantorow performed
Maurice Ravel's "''''" above
Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor under heavy rain. The parade boats continued with the
Gambian through
Jamaican delegations. The ceremony moved to the
Musée d'Orsay and paid homage to French filmmakers the
Lumière brothers and
Georges Méliès, alongside French children's literature, such as
The Little Prince, as well as French contributions to aviation, while the
Paul Dukas tone poem ''
The Sorcerer's Apprentice'', (most famously featured in
Walt Disney's Fantasia), played. After that, the
International Space Station (in whose
program the
European Space Agency is a participant) appears, revealing a yellow
periscope which pans down to an animated underwater sequence by
Illumination Studios Paris featuring the
Minions from
Illumination's
Despicable Me franchise, holding various sports events from the Olympics in a submarine reminiscent of
Jules Verne's
Nautilus from
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, as well as revealing themselves to be the ones responsible for stealing the
Mona Lisa earlier, which emerged from the Seine after their usual mayhem causes the sub to explode. Mezzo-soprano
Axelle Saint-Cirel, representing the national personification of the French
Marianne, then sang the
French national anthem in a French flag-themed Dior dress atop the
Grand Palais.
Sororité The sixth sequence, '''' (sorority/sisterhood), highlighted nine notable French women with golden statues along the Seine:
Olympe de Gouges,
Alice Milliat,
Gisèle Halimi,
Paulette Nardal,
Jeanne Barret,
Christine de Pizan,
Louise Michel,
Alice Guy, and
Simone Veil. A tenth statue, of
Simone de Beauvoir, was supposed to be included, but did not rise during the ceremony due to technical problems. After that, Saint-Cirel sang the sixth verse of the French national anthem, accompanied by a choir.
Sportivité The seventh sequence, ''
(sportsmanship), resumed the parade boats with the Japanese through Norwegian delegations. Athletes demonstrated urban sports, namely skateboarding and BMX freestyle, as well as breakdancing on floating ramps near . Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński dressed as a Pierrot who sang Viens Hymen'' from
Jean-Philippe Rameau's opera
Les Indes galantes, becoming the first artist from Poland to perform at an Olympic Games opening ceremony. Orliński then performed some breakdancing in a nod to the sport's inclusion at the Games. and
Philippe Katerine seen nearly nude and painted as a blue
Dionysus (the Greek god of
wine, in tribute to France's
wine industry and the
ancient Greek Olympics), performed "", lying at the center of a long table, with the drag queens posed in a sort of
Bacchanalian feast. Some commentators in the news media noted the pose as a possible allusion to the
Jan van Bijlert painting
Le Festin des Dieux, and to the relationship between Dionysus and his daughter
Sequana, the goddess of the Seine, while others interpreted it as depicting a reimagining of
The Last Supper by da Vinci. Katerine's display was also compared to
Papa Smurf from the Belgian comic series
The Smurfs (one of the popular French-language comics). The horsewoman wore the Olympic flag as a cape along with silver and black armour, and rode a metallic mechanical horse galloping at 25 km/h midstream on the Seine. As she galloped, she spread dove wings above the Seine, an ancient symbol of peace between nations during the Olympic truce. Once the mechanical horse completed its course on the Seine, the horsewoman, now portrayed by Floriane Issert, showed up riding a live, white horse on land, crossing the
pont d'Iena. This segment referenced
Pierre de Coubertin and the history of the Olympics, with numerous archival images and footage showing iconic highlights of the past Games. Volunteers carrying the flags of the participating countries gathered on the Pont d'Iéna. The horsewoman climbed off the white horse and carried another, folded Olympic flag on foot to a mast at the Trocadéro, surrounded by athletes, in front of a
Paul Jouve’s 1937 sculpture titled “Bull’s head and leaping deer", sculpted at the Trocadéro. The
Olympic Hymn was performed by the featuring the and the in Greek as members of the
French Armed Forces raised the flag, which was accidentally raised upside down. The 1.80-meter metal horse was designed and built by Atelier Blam, a Nantes design studio founded by Aurélien Meyer. The rider's costume, designed by Jeanne Friot and Robert Mercier, was upcycled leather armor. The actual flame, meanwhile, was stored in a lantern nearby.
Epilogue Canadian singer
Céline Dion, accompanied by pianist and musical director Scott Price, concluded the ceremony by singing
Édith Piaf's "" from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower, bringing the ceremony to a close at 23:29 CEST. == Music performances ==