Today we took wee cone-head Tom to the vet to get his injured eye looked at by confident and pleasant vet Kate. The news is good; Tom’s eye is nearly healed and Kate removed his stitches (they would have dissolved eventually but might have been itchy for him.) His butt is healing well too. Tom was so brave throughout. However he still has to keep his cone on for a couple more days. The cost of all this has been horrendous.
On Friday evening we watched the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games 2024. The BBC coverage opened with Tom Hiddleston speaking French, so I was immediately won over! The opening ceremony took place on the river rather than in a stadium, with the athletes transported by boats. Meanwhile various musical and historical events took place along the banks of the river, some of which were pretty amazing, with lots of “son et lumière” and lots of music old and new. I adored the literary scene where French classic books about love were brandished about while acrobats swayed about on long poles and an opera singer sang the Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen. Juliette Armanet sang Imagine while drifting along the river on a raft with a piano which was on fire. It was all so very French. Unfortunately for the organisers and volunteers, the rain lashed down relentlessly the whole time, everyone was clearly drenched, and you could see that the dancers were performing on dangerously slippy ground! After an effective and rather lengthy light display at the Eiffel Tower we thought that the ceremony was just about over but no! Rafael Nadal set off by speed boat with the Olympic torch, back down the river to the Louvre where a succession of former top French athletes carried it onwards to the Tuileries where the Olympic flame was finally lit in a cauldron topped by a hot air balloon. This then rose into the air while Piaf’s Hymne à l’Amour was sung by Celine Dion who was half way up the Eiffel Tower. What a great finale, and I found it very moving in light of Celine Dion’s recent health problems; she was fantastic. Reviews from UK have been mixed; some people just don’t “get” France I think!
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