As part of the Closing Ceremony to the Tokyo Olympics, there was a pretty impressive handoff to the next host city, Paris - from iconic locations across Paris, in the sky over Paris and even from space
On the International Space Shuttle, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide did his personal handoff to French astronaut Thomas Pesquet
The French anthem, La Marseillaise was played live by Orchestre National de France from Radio France studios. Silvia Careddu played notes on her flute from the roof of Stade de France which will host some of the events in 2024. There was a marimba performance at the Louvre, a string ensemble played at the Square du Vert-Galant, a piano performance at La Recyclerie, previously a train station and percussion from the Diderot Skatepark. Astronaut Thomas Pesquet also shows up in this on his sax.
In my favorite part, BMX rider Estelle Majal took us on a ride sequence (to music by Woodkid titled Prologue) across the rooftops of Paris including icons like the Musee D'Orsay, Grand Palais, Place de la Concorde and more. (btw The video ends with a giant (90 x 60 meter) flag flying around the Eiffel Tower - that had to be a CGI version. Due to weather they had to scrap the live version.)
Finally the Patrouille de France flew over the Paris sky and left contrails of blue, white and red smoke – the colors of the French flag
More details of the artists and locales at the Paris 2024 site
Comments