January 31, 2025 - 6:20 AM
PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron announced Friday that the cauldron balloon, one of the Paris Olympics ' most admired attractions, would float in the skies over the French capital every summer until the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Macron posted on his TikTok account a video of the cauldron flying through the air at night, accompanied by Celine Dion's cover of Edith Piaf’s “Hymne à l’amour” (“Hymn to Love”) — the song Dion performed at the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony.
Macron said the cauldron “will be back” from June 21 — Music Day in France — to mid-September until 2028.
The Paris cauldron is the first in Olympic history to light up without the use of fossil fuels, instead using water and electric light.
The 7-meter (23-feet) diameter ring of fire, supported by a giant air balloon, dazzled spectators during the Paris Olympics. Every night, it drew crowds of thousands as it rose up more than 60 meters (197 feet) above the ground. The launch zone was located near the glass pyramid entrance to the Louvre museum.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo welcomed the news on Instagram, saying the cauldron will be reinstalled in the Tuileries gardens, where it was located during the Olympics. “I’m delighted,” she wrote.
“This is very, very good news,” she said, praising “a legacy of the Paris Games that we’ll remember forever.”
News from © The Associated Press, 2025