The sun sets for the last time over the Olympic Games in Paris. During the day, Paris shines. But at night, it sparkles.
And perhaps rarely as clearly as in the past two and a half weeks.
Exhibit 1: the Eiffel Tower, of course. As the sun sets each evening, the lights come on, enhancing the beauty of the iron latticework. But the “ooh” moment in beach volleyball, played in an incredibly photogenic stadium beneath the tower, comes at 10 p.m., when the music stops and the commentators tell the crowd to turn toward the Eiffel Tower (were they looking somewhere else?) and light up their phones.
The sun sets over the cauldron that stands on the final day of the 2024 Summer Olympics before the closing ceremony, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Exhibit 2: The shimmering sphere that seemed to float in the night sky above the Tuileries Gardens – the Olympic Cauldron, a ring of fire (not a real flame) 7 metres (23 feet) in diameter, carried by a giant hot air balloon.
Every evening, large crowds gathered in the gardens and neighboring courtyard of the Louvre Museum – also stunningly lit – and waited for the launch, sometimes watching groups of crashing waves dancing.
A wave of relief arose from the crowd, not only from tourists but also from die-hard Parisians who were impressed by the evening light show in their hometown.
