Even the jumps at the Olympic equestrian events were meticulously crafted works of art. In the gardens of the Château de Versailles, riders negotiated fences modeled on the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, Paris bistros, streets with a horse in their name such as Passage du Cheval Blanc and a stained-glass window from Noter Dame.
France, aiming high for the Paris Olympics (perilously high, many thought), was not about to stick mere poles in the ground and ask horses and their riders to jump those obstacles in the former residence of kings.
Uncompromising French ambition marked the remarkable 16 days of the Olympics, a miracle of detailed planning and execution at a cost of about $4.8 billion. France came into the Games shaken by two rounds of an unexpected legislative election that yielded a political impasse. It will exit with those problems unsolved but with a new self-confidence.
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