Floating in the air

You have to feel a little bit sorry for Paris, suffering from its own Rish! moment, just as the world tunes in. But they had the basic common sense to provide the key speakers with an umbrella-holder, and everyone else involved carried on as if it was a balmy Parisian sunset. Kudos to them all, given the complexity of some of the dance moves

We should not be surprised that Nadia Comăneci has a better sense of balance than Rafael Nadal, Serena, Williams and Carl Lewis combined

I loved it; all those tiny nations whose names only get mentions once every four years: Aruba, Eswatini, Nauru, Palau, São Tomé and Príncipe. No place on the boats for Russia or Belarus, but one for Palestine, a country not recognised by USA, UK or France. 

Great to see salt rubbed into the wounds of the French nationalists - the Marseillaise performed by a mezzo-soprano child of immigrants from Guadeloupe and a Charles Aznavour classic from their bête noir, Aya Nakamura, immigrant from Mali to the Paris banlieues and now the most listened-to performer in French on the planet

If only John were here to tell us what he thought about his hyper-idealistic anthem to the elimination of division ("Imagine there's no countries...Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too") being performed to a burning piano, floating on the Seine, at the most political and nationalistic event in the global calendar, then subject to multiple references in the speech by the head of the IOC. Even his talent for bitter, ascerbic humour might have been tested

I loved the sequence where Sequana, goddess of the Seine, was carried along the river by a stainless steel horse; that held some mythical power. And I loved the lighting of the flame; the hot-air baloon rising slowly into the air, honouring the athletes and the first ever flight by the Montgolfier brothers

Hats off to Paris, rain or not