Sawt Falasteen - Olympic balloon rises again in Paris

As locals danced to live music in and around the Tuileries garden in central Paris, the balloon made its return on a hot summer evening.

Organisers are hoping it will once again attract crowds of tourists.

During the Games, the Olympic cauldron was tethered to the balloon, flying above the Tuileries garden at sunset every day. Thousands flocked to see the seven-metre (23-foot) wide ring of electric fire.

Last summer's version "had been thought up to last for the length of the Olympic and Paralympic Games," said Mathieu Lehanneur, the designer of the cauldron.

After President Emmanuel Macron "decided to bring it back, all of the technical aspects needed to be reviewed", he told AFP on Thursday.

Lehanneur said he was "very moved" that the Olympic balloon was making a comeback.

"The worst thing would have been for this memory to become a sitting relic that couldn't fly anymore," he said.

- 'Make the flames dance' -

The balloon's return on Saturday kicks off a daily appearance each evening until September 14 -- a summer staple every year until the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

"For its revival, we needed to make sure it changed as little as possible and that everything that did change was not visible," said Lehanneur.

With a decarbonated fire patented by French energy giant EDF, the upgraded balloon follows "the same technical principles" as its previous version, said director of innovation at EDF Julien Villeret.

The improved attraction "will last ten times longer" and be able to function for "300 days instead of 30", according to Villeret.

The creators of the balloon also reinforced the light-and-mist system that "makes the flames dance", he said.

Under the cauldron, a machine room hides cables, a compressor and a hydro-electric winch.

That system will "hold back the helium balloon when it rises and pull it down during descent", said Jerome Giacomoni, president of the Aerophile group that constructed the balloon.

"Filled with 6,200 cubic meters of helium that is lighter than air," the Olympic balloon "will be able to lift around three tonnes" of cauldron, cables and attached parts, he said.

The Tuileries garden is where French inventor Jacques Charles took flight in his first gas balloon on December 1, 1783.

He followed in the footsteps of the famed Montgolfier brothers, who had just nine days earlier elsewhere in Paris managed to launch a similar balloon into the sky with humans onboard.

The website vasqueparis2024.fr is to display the times when the modern-day balloon will rise and indicate any potential cancellations due to weather.

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A.Suleiman--SF-PST