Behind the scenes of the Olympics opening ceremony’s galloping silver horse

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00The metal horse that galloped down the Seine during the Olympics opening ceremony stunned

00:04viewers across the world.

00:07It was created here in Nantes, in western France.

00:12When we left at 10.15 we had a few doubts about whether it would work.

00:17Underneath its silver armour is a vast system of chains.

00:21It took a year's work and is now the source of a lot of pride in this workshop.

00:26We received thousands and thousands of happy messages and congratulations, it was just

00:31incredible.

00:32It was a brilliant moment, my phone was ringing all the time.

00:38On the river, it looked like it was flying, but in reality it was on top of an electric

00:42boat which was, at times, partly visible.

00:45The manufacturer of the boat has just returned home to Brittany from Paris.

00:52The boat is actually 14 metres long and 5 metres wide, it's 1.8 metres deep.

00:59It was designed to be invisible.

01:02The first challenge was to make a boat that barely rises above the surface of the water,

01:06we're talking only 15 centimetres.

01:08The first trials were carried out in June, off the coast of western France, then in secret

01:13back in Paris in the middle of the night.

01:16The mysterious rider was this engineer, who is also the boat's co-creator.

01:23I really really enjoyed it, it was a magical moment, the fun really outweighed the stress

01:29and everything else.

01:32The silver horse will be on display in Paris from October.

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