Well, Readers, last night I stayed up to watch the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony. I am torn between describing it as ‘amazing’ and ‘shambolic’ with a little bit of ‘unintelligible’ thrown in. You have to admire the ambition though – athletes from 205 countries travelling down the Seine in boats of various sizes (in the pouring rain as it turned out), 12 ‘artistic tableaux’ depicting everything from the French Revolution to the role of women in French history, Lady Gaga in 6 inch stilettos performing in French on a dodgy staircase, and lots more. Here are a few thoughts, I’d love to hear yours!

• I always love seeing all the athletes from the different countries (and had a big lump in my throat for the Refugee team in particular, plus all the small countries where their hopes rested on the shoulders of a handful of athletes). I love all the different outfits (Mongolia seems to have been a particular favourite this year, with each athlete’s tabard being hand-embroidered). I love the way that the poor old commentators have exactly ten seconds to tell us who the flag-carriers are, and, in the UK at least, throw in some arcane geographical fact (‘Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world”! Senegal is the furthest west of all African countries! Carthage is in Tunisia!)
• The way that the coverage went from the boats to some bizarre goings-on elsewhere was pretty confusing, though in the end I just relaxed and went with the flow. So, now we have a menage a trois with three people dressed as harlequin in a library? Fine!)
• Who was the masked guy/woman with the torch doing parkour over most of Paris?
• Not sure I liked all the beheaded people with a heavy metal band performing in front of them.
• People dressed as Louis XIV were doing break-dancing and riding BMX bikes on floating pontoons designed to resemble the gardens at Versailles. Health and Safety, people! It was absolutely chucking it down, surely it was all mega slippery.
• Kudos to the various singers/dancers/pianists who did their best while the raindrops were literally bouncing off their bonces.
• There was a metallic silver horse and rider that galloped the whole way down the Seine, to be replaced by someone on a real horse who delivered the Olympic flag. Some pedants have noticed that it was then hung upside down. I feel so sorry for the people who must have rehearsed day after day to get it right.
• I loved the range of singers and dancers – French-Malian Aya Nakamura was accompanied by the military band of the Republican Guard. It was a bit of a poke in the eye for the far right, who would also have been mightily outraged by the parade of drag queens, non-binary folk and other beautiful people parading on the cat walk in another sequence.
• The song ‘Imagine’ has become a feature of the Olympic opening ceremony, and this was a beautiful performance by soloist Juliette Armanet and pianist Sofiane Pamart, on a boat that appeared to be burning. Of course, singing ‘imagine there’s no countries’ after a parade of 205 of them, all intent on outdoing one another, always rings a little hollow, but it’s a splendid dream anyway.
• Poor old Carl Lewis, Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Nadia Comāneci carrying the torch to the Tuilerie Gardens via an extremely rough and wet River Seine. At one point I thought that Serena Williams might be getting seasick and Carl Lewis wore the rictus smile of someone who is going to get through this no matter what. At least Nadia Comāneci managed to keep her balance. Why did none of the commentators seem to know who she was, I wonder? Maybe they’re all too young to remember her gold medals at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
• The lighting of the cauldron was really something, and completely unexpected. How do you top a hot air balloon rising into the air in a blaze of golden fire?

• Celine Dion! Not one of my favourite singers, but after learning of her health challenges (she hasn’t performed live since 2020) I was moved to see her, and she absolutely knocked it out of the park. You can have a listen here.

Well Readers, if you watched the Opening Ceremony, what did you think? I’m especially intrigued to know what any North American readers made of it all – a lot of it was inexplicable even here in the UK, and we’re only 26 miles away. I think it was too long (as these things always are), sometimes overblown, sometimes tasteless, sometimes joyous, sometimes magical, and occasionally deeply moving. But maybe it was ever thus.

Cat Update: Bad news overnight – Willow has had a couple of seizures, which might mean that her Feline Infectious Peritonitis has progressed. We are waiting for a neurologist to have a look, but my gut feeling is that the disease is outrunning the treatment that she’s having. She is apparently settled and being kept comfortable today, but I suspect that we will soon be having to do the kindest thing, which will be to put her to sleep. Will keep you all posted.