During the opening ceremony of the Olympic games on July 26th, the spectacle will require no manufactured decor; the athletes no unnatural parade route. The Seine will be the stage, Paris the enchanting backdrop. The river, winding its way 777km from a plateau in Burgundy (of which 13km flow through Paris), will carry national teams aboard a flotilla of boats—past bridges, monuments and cobbled quaysides that lend the French capital its charisma. Later hundreds of athletes will plunge into the river for both triathlon and swimming races.