With the lighting of the Olympic flame, a sigh of relief.
This opening ceremony, a beast so bold as to have taken over the city of Paris almost entirely, is now a memory to cherish rather than a challenge to conquer.
It is difficult to properly convey the scope of this accomplishment and the sacrifices and accommodations made by this city to make it happen. The ambition was to create a truly unique ceremony, something new and inclusive and inspiring.
By that metric, this was a fabulous success.
Through the choppy waters of the River Seine came boat after boat of athletes, their arrivals punctuated by performances on the river, its banks and throughout the city.
A story was told as the Olympic flame was delivered through the city, the Eiffel Tower beamed as it never had before, Zinedine Zidane bookended it all and everything seemed to go off without a hitch.
The city of lights danced as one in the rain.
There were drag queens and silver horses and Louis Vuitton suitcases and a mysterious masked figure (which may or not have been Zizou all along?). Lady Gaga thrilled, and Céline Dion was c'est magnifique in closing the show atop la Tour Eiffel.
It was awkward at times, and my goodness was it wet, but by the end you had to step back and marvel at the feat of pulling this whole thing off.
Of course it all came at a cost. There was irony in the motto of these Olympics — Games Open Wide — as the city had very much been slammed shut on ceremony day by an unprecedented peacetime security operation.
There was an armed police officer for every civilian on the streets of Paris, and many of those streets were blocked off entirely. Enough metro stations were shut to almost render the whole thing useless, a situation worsened by the overnight arson attacks on the high-speed rail lines in and out of the city.
The locals, it seemed, had long since cleared out. Anyone who was left was braced for the hours-long battle through security to take up their vantage point along the river or in the Trocadéro.
There is a reason that something like this hasn't been attempted at an Olympic Games before.
A traditional opening ceremony, held in a stadium, is predictable and relatively safe. You can push the boundaries all you like creatively but logistically speaking everything is contained and manageable.
To bring this vision to life meant preparing for every eventuality, foreseeing the unforeseeable, preparing for the unpreparable.
It meant shutting down Paris.
Indeed the only thing that the organisers couldn't prevent was the poor weather, which unfortunately drowned out much of what could have made this night that little bit more magical.
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The specific timings of this ceremony were all designed with the sunset in mind, a sunset that was entirely blanketed by thick cloud.
What a shame that an otherwise resplendent Parisian week turned to deluge at the precise moment the opening ceremony began. The rain arrived within minutes of the event beginning and did not relent.
The athletes seemed unbothered, so too the many hundreds of thousands of people who clamoured for a glimpse. They donned their ponchos and they braved the downpour, determined to make a memory even if it didn't match the picture they had formed in their head.
Perhaps there was a message in that. Even something like this, the absolute pinnacle of creativity, planning and production, can fall foul of something completely out of human hands. Our ability to control everything will forever be compromised, but you can always make the most of what presents itself.
The more prevalent themes of the opening ceremony were hard to miss. In his program notes, creative director Thomas Jolly spoke of "peace, respect and diversity" as the key marks he wanted to hit. He certainly didn't miss.
Jolly's most pointed remarks though referred to the wider context these Olympics find themselves in — a world "at the crossroads of history and innovation, heritage and creativity" — and for the dream he was trying to create — "a world-city where a plural conception of living together is emerging: the possibility of an 'us'".
And at its heart, isn't that what the Olympic Games is all about?
Athletes and spectators come divided by national colours and competition but upon arrival immediately blend into one.
These Games, like this opening ceremony, can be a celebration of humanity. An all too timely reminder of our shared sameness while still highlighting excellence. Of recognising the joy of something as trivial as sport in the hope it can mend the world's wounds in some small way.
Cynicism is easy, but this was an opening ceremony that pleaded with us to feel something, to dream something.
There could be no better way to welcome the Paris Olympics. Let the Games begin.
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