'We did it!': France breathes sigh of relief after Olympics ceremony

PARIS, France — The concept had been derided as overly ambitious and the location criticized as a prime security risk. But after years of preparation, France could Saturday breathe a sigh of relief -- it had pulled off the Olympic opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Games.

Opting for a ceremony on the waters of the River Seine rather than the standard option of a stadium was a theatrical gesture typical of President Emmanuel Macron but which brought considerable risks.

The day was also far from ideal. It began with news of three attacks on signal infrastructure on the French railway network which will disrupt travel for the next days and raises the prospect of a coordinated bid by so far unknown individuals to upset the Games.

Meanwhile the weather conspired against organiers and spectators, with an unseasonable deluge drenching performers, athletes and onlookers protected by nothing more than plastic ponchos.

But the show went on.

It lasted a marathon four hours, reaching a crescendo with a spectacular climax as the Olympic flame soared into the sky aboard a cauldron tethered to a balloon and Celine Dion serenaded Paris with an Edith Piaf song from the Eiffel Tower.

The eclectic show put on by director Thomas Jolly was not to everyone's taste -- the Times of London called it "surreal" and a "damp squib" but no-one could doubt its originality and daring.

And above all the mass event had passed off safely without incident. Parisians and visitors will now again be able to enjoy most of the city without brandishing QR codes to get through police barriers put up for the event that had put much of the riverside embankment into security lockdown over the last days.

"With sabotage of railway installations in the morning and pouring rain in the evening, the opening day of the Olympics was chaotic but ended with a grandiose ceremony which broke all the rules," daily Liberation wrote on the front page of its Saturday edition.

- 'Creative genius' -

Images of police snipers deployed on rooves provided a stark reminder of the constant security threat faced by France which has been hit by a spate of attacks by Islamist extremists since 2015.

The ceremony also marked a boost