It was a discrepant, rainy and magical night in Paris for the Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympics. A 3.5 mile flotilla on the River Seine, carrying 10,500 athletes on 94 boats.  Lady Gaga and  Aya Nakamura  performed.  The whole spectacle ended on a high, with the  lighting of a floating cauldron  and a courageous tour de force of  Celine Dione  singing Edith Piaff's  L'Hymne a L'amour . There is a lot of history. It was in Paris way back in 1783 that the very first flight took place, on a hot air balloon before King Louis XVI.  On board were a sheep, a duck and a young rooster.  They survived. A few days later, Jacques Charles used a hydrogen-filled balloon from the same spot in the Jardin des Tuileries in front of 400,000 people. The ballon is filled with hydrogen, but the cauldron is not a fossil-fuel flame.  Electricity is fed to 40 LED spotlights to illuminate a cloud of water using 200 high-pressure mist...