Paris 2024 Olympics – An ode to Life

What did this Opening Ceremony inaugurate? The Olympic Games, of course but was it only this?

This ceremony was, above all, an invitation to join in a collective ode to life.

In Art de Vivre, we often focus on the Art and forget the Living. Far from the polished imagery often attached to the Art de Vivre à la Française, @Thomas Jolly helped us, even in France, to reconnect with that Living. And a true Art of Life it is.

Because the French Art de Vivre is more than a set of codes, it is about celebrating and radiating life itself:

• A life that brings beauty to the world; starting with the athletes, who this time were fully part of the celebration, right at its heart;
• A joyful, bold life, full of aesthetic and contagious energy one that manages to overcome the unexpected with determination, like in the heavy rain that, in its own way, highlighted the very essence of athletic perseverance;
• A life of love, for one, for two, for three, for the world, for beauty, for creation, for sport and all the blends, like the fusion between @Aya Nakamura and the @Garde Républicaine, who joined her in her dance;
• A life that owns its history and even elevates it, with references as intense as the gore side of the French Revolution, while embracing innovation with, for example, the mechanical horse of the Olympic equestrian;
• A life that mixes humor (starting with a Jamel Debbouze joke, the slapstick of the Minions) and emotion (John Lennon’s Imagine performed by @Sofiane Pamart and @Juliette Armanet);
• A life of excess and simplicity, from the wild “Dionysos-Katherine” to the solemn Marseillaise sung from the roof of the Grand Palais;
• A life dreamed of, but made real, between the feats of the torchbearers, paintings coming to life in the Louvre, and the flying Olympic cauldron;
• A life for all, and with all. All dances, all ages, all music genres; filled with deep meaning and multiple layers of interpretation at every moment.

And you, did you see and love this ode to life? Or did it all seem a bit messy to you?

Another major notion of the French Art of Living was also present in this ceremony: Universalism. That will be the topic of tomorrow’s post.