15 reasons to love the French

After two weeks of making sense of the greatest show on Earth, Simon Barnes, who has covered every Games since 1984, sends Paris a love letter.

1. After seven years of moaning, bitching and politicking the French threw the finest party in the history of humanity. In troubled times the world was able to remember the meaning of joie de vivre.

2. The Parisians have a reputation for being snotty, especially if you try to speak French. But sport is the lingua franca of the world and throughout the Games the French have spoken it fluently.

3. Driven in Seine: they managed to stage swimming events in the river, despite pollution problems. Bonne chance if you try that in the Thames.

4. A lingering suspicion after the opening ceremony that the French still think Johnny Halliday is cool.

5. The tradition of épater les bourgeois still exists, as shown by the drag queen Last Supper in the opening ceremony.

6. And the opening ceremony was held along the (only mildly polluted) river instead of locked up in a stadium.

7. The love affair with Léon Marchand, the swimmer who won four gold medals, and the way he was cheered every time his head emerged from the water: alleeeeez!

8. French athletes had a great Games without turning every event into France contre le monde. Point for Los Angeles to ponder in four years’ time.

9. Antoine Dupont rose to the occasion in the rugby sevens on the opening weekend: setting the tone of panache.

10. The horsey events at Versailles reminded us of the diary entry of Louis XVI on July 14 1789: rien.

11. Haussmann’s Paris as backdrop; better still if television presenters limited their use of the word “iconic” to once per sentence.

12. Events were staged almost entirely in existing and temporary facilities; there were only two new permanent buildings: Olympics sans folie des grandeurs.

13. Alice Finot came fourth in the 3,000 metres steeplechase, setting a new European record – and at the finish proposed to her boyfriend. Quelle finesse!

14. Teddy Riner won judo gold by ippon: dropping his opponent flat on his back. The French are big in the sport, so is Riner.

15. Albert Camus: “For, after many years in which the world has offered me many experiences, what I know most surely in the long run about morality and the obligations of man, I owe to sport.”