A Dream Takes Flight: How a Balloon Became the Unexpected Symbol of the Paris Games

No one saw it coming. Yet the Paris 2024 cauldron balloon has emerged as the most memorable image of the Games. Tracing the history of this invention, Mathieu Gobbi and Jérôme Giacomoni recount 250 years of daring, innovation, and fascination with the sky and tethered balloons. It is a story of determined pioneers, childhood dreams come true, and that irresistible urge to soar that has accompanied humanity ever since the Montgolfier brothers. (…)