Olympics live: First gold for Australia as eyes turn to the pool

Paris was going to let nothing rain on its parade. Not even teeming rain. Not even an arson attack on the rail network earlier in the day. The Games of the 28^th Olympiad are officially open.

It was the first opening ceremony in Games history to be held outside a stadium and it was unapologetically French. Aloof, maybe a bit weird, perhaps so clever that most of us didn't understand it.

You had every right to wonder that the burning piano represented as it accompanied a rendition of John Lennon's Imagine. What about the metal horsewoman who galloped along the surface of the Seine? And let's not even start thinking about the "pervy smurf", who was meant to represent the Greek god Dionysus. They should turn him into a limited-edition soft toy mascot.

The entertainment kicked off with a spot by Lady Gaga, metal band Gojira rocked it out singing about revolution, there was opera, DJs, classical and pop. All week there were rumours that Celine Dion would appear, her first performance since she revealed she had a rare progressive neurological disorder.

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By the time she appeared, almost four hours after the first boat full of athletes left port, the opening ceremony was struggling, but under the lights of the Eiffel Tower Dion looked regal and wrapped the whole thing up in such a classy way.

If you were looking for athletes it was a little disappointing. The boats went by pretty quickly, some nations shared a boat, the USA looked like they were aboard a battleship there were so many of them. There was no footage from onboard the boats so the athletes were always at a distance, unlike the ceremonies inside a stadium where cameras weave and bob among the teams.

Opening ceremony uniforms were perhaps a waste of money. We didn't get to see them close up, a lot of them were covered by cheap plastic ponchos once the rain set in. In this sense, it was a bit of a let down.

But was the whole thing a success? It was fabulous to tour through Paris, but really the athletes probably had the best view. From a television perspective it lagged a little, we just felt a little distant from it all.

At one point Australian film director Baz Luhrmann, there in the VIP area with fashion legend Anna Wintour, said the whole night had a certain "je ne sais quoi" about it.

This literally translates as "a quality which cannot be described or named easily."

That's probably an apt way to sum it up.