Despite hours of rain Paris puts on a dazzling display for Olympics opening ceremony on Friday that dazzled the crowds and the world.
It combined can-can dancers, tributes to French history and acrobatics with drag, jet flyovers and rap.
Surprise performances by Lady Gaga and Celine Dion were highlights.
Nerves ran high beforehand because of the complexity of the spectacle and arson attacks that disrupted French rail traffic and heightened security concerns.
The show, years in the making, for the first time ever focused activity on a river, the Seine, which flows through the heart of Paris. The country delegations floated along a route nearly four miles long in craft ranging from barges to motor boats (for the small teams).
The producers sought to showcase a vision of a modern and inclusive France. Performers included Mali-born singer Aya Nakamura, whose hip-hop inflected hits have been targeted by racist campaigns, while drag queens joined a runway show highlighting French fashion.
The action then moved to the Eiffel Tower -- which glittered with lasers and strobe effects -- and the Trocadero, a green space across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.
The flame traveled to the Trocadero by a relay that included athletic greats on a boat in the Seine then running past the glass pyramid at the Louvre under dark and rainy skies.
French President Emanuel Macron officially declared the Games open as the Olympic flame lighted a cauldron with a hot air balloon on top, that floated away, a reference to French achievements in science. Dion, who hasn't performed in four years due to a neurological disorder, then brought the house down with an Edith Piaf song on the Eiffel Tower.
Lady Gaga, Celine Dion and an incredible Olympic flame - how Paris 2024 opening ceremony wowed world.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron declared the Olympic Games open on Friday after a soaking wet ceremony in which athletes were cheered by the crowd along the Seine, dancers took to the roofs of Paris and Lady Gaga sang a French cabaret song.
France's three-time Olympic gold medallists Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Riner then lit the Olympic cauldron, suspended on a hot-air balloon, before Canada's Celine Dion sang Edith Piaf's "Hymn to Love", in her first public performance in years, drawing huge cheers from the crowd.
The 30-metre (98 ft) high balloon carrying a 7-metre diametre ring of fire took to the air and was hovering dozens of metres above the ground.
It will be in the air from sunset until 2 am local time every day, organisers said.
"We are so proud of this show, I'm so proud that sport and culture were celebrated in such a fantastic manner tonight, it was a first and the result was fantastic despite the rain," Paris 2024 organising president Tony Estanguet told reporters.
A fleet of barges took the competitors on a 6 km-stretch of the river alongside some of the French capital's most famous landmarks, as performers recreated some of the sports to be showcased in the Games on floating platforms.
It was the first time that an opening ceremony has taken place outside a stadium, adding to the headaches for a vast security operation, just hours after a sabotage attack on the high-speed TGV rail network caused travel chaos across France.
"I invite everybody: dream with us. Like the Olympic athletes, be inspired with the joy that only sport can give us. Let us celebrate this Olympic spirit of living in peace," International Olympics Committee President Thomas Bach said as the ceremony came to an end at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
More than 10,500 athletes will compete at the Olympics, 100 years since Paris last staged the Games. Competition started on Wednesday and the first of the 329 gold medals will be awarded on Saturday.
As the show started four hours earlier, a giant plume of blue, white and red smoke, resembling the French flag, was sent high above a bridge over the Seine as part of a show that included many postcard-like depictions of France, including a huge cancan line performed by Moulin Rouge dancers on the banks.
A more modern image of the country was on display when French-Malian pop star Aya Nakamura, the most-listened to French female singer in the world, sang some of her biggest hits, accompanied by the French Republican Guard's army choir.
Nakamura's performance drew some of the ceremony's biggest cheers. Rumours of her inclusion had sparked a row over French identity, with supporters saying she represented the vibrancy of modern-day France while her detractors said her music owes more to foreign influences than French.
