The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will take place over 17 days, starting on Friday 26 July. At 19:30 local time, around 3,000 dancers, musicians and actors will transform the banks of the Seine and its bridges into a majestic stage, following a six-kilometre route down the river to the Eiffel Tower, where a stage has been erected to replicate its silhouette.

This is the third time the French capital has hosted the event (1900 and 1924). The emblematic monuments of the City of Light will be at the heart of the Opening Ceremony of both the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the details of which will be kept under wraps until the big day. The show will run for three hours and 45 minutes.

More than 300,000 people are expected to watch the Opening Ceremony live, including 222,000 on the upper banks of the Seine and 104,000 on the lower piers. In addition, 80 giant screens will be set up around the city, with more than a billion people expected to watch at home.

Artistic director Thomas Jolly promises that the ceremony will "not only take over the piers and bridges, but also the sky and the water". The route will be divided into twelve sections, paying tribute to the athletes, telling "a story of what France is" - a country of "diversity" - and celebrating "the whole world coming together", according to Jolly.

The six-kilometre route will start at the Pont d'Austerlitz, next to the Jardin des Plantes, and head west along the Seine, past famous landmarks such as Notre-Dame and the Louvre. Every metre of the route will be filled with shows, music and artistic performances, promising an immersive experience for spectators. Céline Dion and Lady Gaga are in Paris and have been confirmed to perform alongside Aya Nakamura, with a soundtrack orchestrated by Victor Le Masne.

The Opening Ceremony represents a major logistical challenge, requiring the closure of the Seine for several days and exceptional transport arrangements.Above all, it requires a first-class security operation, with controlled perimeters enforced by the police since last Thursday and 40,000 barriers erected around the city, much to the surprise and sometimes displeasure of Parisians.

The closure of the city centre has also frustrated shopkeepers, who have reported a drop in footfall. Preparatory work by the police involved various services, including sniffer dogs and bomb disposal experts. A total of 45,000 police officers, surveillance drones, 10,000 military personnel and snipers on rooftops will be on alert for any danger on Friday. There will also be 20,000 private security guards.

Public transport authorities have been planning for months. Several metro stations have been closed for the event and trains will run more frequently to accommodate the 326,000 spectators expected. To transport the 6,800 athletes taking part in the parade, 250 buses have been arranged to board floating platforms and disembark at four zones.

The parade will involve 205 delegations and 85 boats and is expected to last two and a half hours. A dozen boats will be on standby in case of breakdowns, while around 15 will regulate the pace of the parade, synchronised with the "show" on the banks, bridges and rooftops of Paris.

Several Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) boats will also be on the water to film the scene. Emergency and security boats will also be on standby if needed. Around 100 boats total will be available to transport the athletes. The largest of the 205 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) will have their own boats, while smaller NOCs will share theirs.

In the "Parade of Nations", the various committees will march in alphabetical order, except for Greece, which will lead as the founder of the Olympic Games, and France, which will march last as the host nation.

The opening ceremony will feature some of the world's most famous athletes, including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Yulimar Rojas, Florent Manaudou, LeBron James and Coco Gauff.

The athletes and their national teams will arrive at the Trocadéro for the official protocols, the lighting of the Olympic cauldron and the official opening of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The parade will end at the Pont de l'Iéna, which links the Eiffel Tower to the Trocadéro. The final part of the parade will take place on the Place du Trocadéro in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron and around 200 other heads of state, government and prime ministers.

The best-kept secret of the Games is who will light the cauldron. For the first time, it could be a pair of athletes. Tennis player Naomi Osaka lit the torch at Tokyo 2020. The identity of the final torchbearer remains a secret, while PresidentEmmanuel Macron will officially declare the Games open.

According to the weather forecast, there is a slight chance of rain, with Meteo-France predicting cloudy skies from midday and drizzle in the morning. The weather should improve in the afternoon, but rain could fall in the Paris region overnight. The ceremony should still proceed as planned.

Moving the Opening Ceremony from a stadium to the heart of Paris is a colossal challenge, requiring careful coordination, daring creativity and impeccable security management. This historic event aims to make the Games accessible to all, transforming the city into a giant stage where everyone can participate.

France wants to break with convention and offer the world a unique spectacle, demonstrating its ability to organise an unforgettable event in the midst of internal social and political tensions, global geopolitical conflicts and a myriad of security threats.