It promises to be a long and “hot” summer. The Euro 2024 is coming, then Wimbledon, and a host of world-class sport competitions.

To top it all will be the Paris Olympics. As you celebrate with Champagne and fine wine, l’exception francaise or French exceptionalism, is once again in a spotlight. It’s time to judge.

That is: will aesthetic beauty of France’s artistic talents trump the world’s premier sporting events?

Well, with the Paris 2024’s logo curves into a visualized face of Marianne, a symbol of French Republic - there is a good chance!

The Beach volleyball will be played against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower. Will you watch the games and/or sink into the ambience and open-air summer breeze of landmark that had graced movie stars, high-end fashion and renown painters?

Will you be taken over by the grandeur and the power and glory associated with Louis XIV’s Chateau de Versailles, which will host the Equestrian events. 

Then there is the Place de la Concorde, a site which hosted many notable public executions, including those of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. It will be the venue for very different displays: the sporting competitions of skateboarding, 3x3 basketball, BMX freestyle and breakdance.

Eagerly awaiting is the reopening of the architectural masterpiece with overarching glass domes of the Grand Palais after closure since 2021. It will be the venue for fencing and taekwondo competitions.   

And there is the eternal romantic Seine River, slated for the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony, overlooked by audiences along the riverbanks, and beamed to billions of TV viewers around the world on July 26.

The Paris Games is already being billed to become the most memorable moments in Olympic history. No cities have gone to this great length and ambition in its heart and soul to host the Olympics. 

The French will definitely pull all the punches to exercise its soft powers; and anxiously, l’exception francaise is up for a momentous judgement.

French exceptionalism is about the perception that France has unique role or mission in the world, distinct from other nations. Apart from the political ideas, which took roots in the French Revolution, there is of course the culture aspects.

French language, arts, literature and cuisine have indeed become a kind of an antidote to Americanism or Anglo-Saxon influence.  

The determined French people have worked hard to preserve their cultures of small shops, cinema, arts, champagne and wine, cuisine, etc. Its way of life is to stop short capitalism excesses. Results have been tormenting for all of its citizens, as France have to embrace globalization to be able to compete and sustain wealth.

The Paris 2024 is destined to mean more to France and the French, as did the impacts to China and the Chinese from the Beijing Olympics. The sports will probably not be trumped, but l’exception francaise will work its aesthetical wonders. Viva la France!