Covering Paris Olympics opening ceremony: rain, rain, memorable moments

PARIS – AFP's coverage of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics had been meticulously prepared for a year, with every detail scrutinized to determine the optimal position for the best shot or the best reportage.

It was an unprecedented ceremony on the River Seine -- an Olympics had never opened before outside the main stadium -- and it merited unprecedented coverage.

At this Olympics, Paris-based AFP are also 'playing at home'.

But all the planning was put in jeopardy by an uninvited guest -- the rain.

In the air, on the roofs of monuments in the City of Light, on the decks of boats or on the banks of the Seine, around 60 AFP text and photo journalists were poised to capture history on Friday.

Their video colleagues, heavily restricted by the restrictions imposed on non-rights holders, sought out ingenious vantage points.

Then the rain started falling. And it didn't stop.

"Until the day before, the forecasts said it would rain on Friday morning and that the evening would be dry," said Chief Photo Editor Martin Bureau, who for a year had led the scouting missions to determine the best positions for the 48 AFP photographers involved.

Instead, the hoped-for vivid colours against a Parisian sunset were replaced by rain-blighted gloom before night fell and the spectacle was lit up.

AFP sent out 3,500 photos, which includes the pooled content produced by all the international agencies. That number is double the production for a classic Olympics opening ceremony in a stadium.

"The weather made it harder for all of the photographers," said Martin. "It definitely had an impact, it meant we sent fewer photographs than we had planned. But it was still crazy."

The rain also meant plans had to be changed fast.

"My position could have produced very different things with different weather conditions," said photographer Julien De Rosa, who spent the day on the north tower of Notre-Dame cathedral, under renovation following a devastating fire in 2019.

Like the other rooftop positions (at Chatelet Theatre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Louvre, Chaillot and, of course, the Eiffel Tower), access had to laboriously negotiated.

Julien faced strict conditions because of the presence of