France has already won the Olympics (2024)

Macron watches the swimming in Paris. (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Was he right to make his exodus? Perhaps, we thought, as residents of the “grey zone” on either side of the Seine were told they could only access their homes with a QR code. Shops, cafés and restaurants emptied —and closed. My local café remained open but only so its manager could complain all day long about the lack of consumers to the few remaining die-hards like myself… and claim compensation after the Games. It felt just like lockdown.

As if our patience hadn’t been tried enough, we then had to contend with rail “sabotage”, stranding nearly a million passengers, and an attack on fibre-optic cables, creating mobile and fixed-line outages across the country. While Russians were initially suspected, leaks from the investigation showed the culprits might have been homegrown. “The modus operandi is that of far-Left groups,” said the Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. That same weekend, he announced that dozens of activists from the self-styled eco-warrior group Extinction Rebellion had been detained on suspicion of fomenting violent actions against the sporting competitions.

Astonishingly, none of this actually derailed the opening ceremony, which was a wild and idiosyncratic combination of the universal and the quirky, including Lady Gaga, Céline Dion, drag queens and a “naked blue smurf” who, we learnt later, was meant to portray the Greek God Dionysus. But as British commentators sneered — The Timescalled it “a damp squib” — the French were “dazzled” (a happy 86% of them according to a poll). Never had an opening ceremony been done like this, on such a scale. That night, a reset button was pressed in France. There would be a before and an after Paris 2024.

“That night, a reset button was pressed in France. There would be a before and an after Paris 2024.”

Before Paris 2024, shortly before the Olympic chaos landed, French voters caused chaos themselves in the first round of a snap election. Only to then distance themselves from Marine Le Pen’s hard-Right party in the second. There was some relief as a coalition of the Left and centrists were victorious. But we were left with an overriding feeling of uncertainty. France has become such a divided country, with two very vocal and disruptive political extremes, that it has become almost impossible to imagine politicians rising to the challenge for the sake of national harmony. President Macron declared a political truce during the Games. We would deal with this later.

And then the heavens opened, along with the Games, and with it came a new joie de vivre. As Raphaël Enthoven described it: “Collective happiness, shared jubilation, Paris both deserted and full, a sublime opening ceremony, triumphant athletes, French champions who love their President, the far-Left suddenly silent… Ah, if only the Games could last forever.”

Obviously French victors have helped the French mood. But another thing has cast a compelling spell. The Olympic decors are breathtakingly beautiful. The beach volley beneath the Eiffel Tower built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, the fencing under the glass dome of the Grand Palais built for the Exposition Universelle of the following year, the triathlon athletes diving from Alexander III bridge into the Seine, the BMX competitions on the 18th-century Place de la Concorde, the cycling races going up and down Montmartre, through the Left Bank boulevards, the equestrian competitions in Versailles. “There is a perfect harmony between those historical settings and the Olympic achievements of the world’s greatest champions,” wrote Pierre Chausse in Le Parisien. “Long ago Parisians stopped believing their city was among the most beautiful in the world. It’s as if the Games have reignited their love for their city.

International broadcasters concur. NBC Sports published its figures for the first week of the games showing that 4.5 billion minutes had already been streamed, more than the entire Tokyo Games of 2021. Warner Bros Discovery reached in two days more visitors to its platform than for the entire 2021 games. And the Paris Games has sold 9.1 million tickets so far, already breaking the record held by Atlanta 1996.

Paris is, indeed, both deserted and full. The grumpy and worried have left in droves, leaving the sport fans who are simply happy to be here. Tourists and locals alike, those left roam the streets with one thing in common: they can’t stop beaming and marvelling at everything. The Parisians who have remained out of curiosity have unexpectedly fallen back in love with their home. Optimism is a heady feeling. France should always remember what it feels like. It will come handy when we form our next government.