Snoop Dogg, an American rapper, held the Olympic torch aloft as it neared the end of its 68-stage journey through France before the opening ceremony on Friday.
The flame was also carried by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and a group of grinning, waving volunteer carriers.
“The relay is over,” said an official preparing to drive away from the last stop on the Canal Saint Martin in a car carrying the slogan “flame relay”.
“Next stop: the cauldron.”
The heavily-guarded flame was headed into the centre of town ready for the final lap of its long journey, ending with the revelation of which star would run the final leg and light the cauldron to officially start the Games.
The last day of the relay was entitled the “Epilogue”.
The torch had gone through several more upscale Paris homes on July 14, the national holiday of Bastille Day, and July 15, before circling the suburbs.
On Friday, it began its final journey in Saint-Denis, home of the main Olympic Stadium and the Athletes’ Village, before sailing down the still-industrial Canal Saint-Denis and under the motorway that surrounds Paris into the traditionally blue-collar 19th arrondissement, braving the occasional drizzle.
At the Athletes’ Village, Bach and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon alternated as torchbearers.
“Now the real thing starts,” Bach told a crowd of athletes. “We’re all in sports. We know that what happened until now is just training. You can feel the vibe among the athletes and the organisers.”
Yiech Pur Biel, who ran the 800m for the Refugee Olympic Team at Rio in 2016 and is an IOC committee member representing South Sudan, found the experience moving.
“You want me to cry, or what?” he asked. “It is an honour to carry this torch for the first time.”
“I am representing millions of refugees who are not here today, and also representing different athletes, different diversities and different communities, and that is what makes me so emotional to be here.”
‘Vive les Jeux Olympiques’
At the stadium, Snoop Dogg in a gold jacket before changing into his white relay tracksuit tried out his French.
“Vive les Jeux Olympiques,” said the rapper, a special correspondent at the Games for US network NBC.
With the torch held aloft he danced, walked, ran and waved as the crowd shouted “Snoop!”.
“Imagine he’s acting crazy, he takes the flame, he lights his joint with it!” said one spectator, Toufik.
From the stadium the flame crossed the canal in Aubervilliers for a series of boat rides, cruising past concrete factories and housing blocks to Paris accompanied by a crowd of spectators, security, officials and even canoeists in fancy dress.
With each torch holding enough fuel for six minutes, progress was interrupted by frequent, choreographed, stops as one torch lit the next and cameras snapped and whirred.
“It doesn’t happen very often. It’s exceptional,” said Nathalie, who did not give her surname, from Aubervilliers as she stood on a bridge awaiting the flame.
The flame passed under the peripherique and into Paris on a diesel-powered canal boat, the torch held aloft by its white-clad bearer, to be met by a crowd leaning over the rail on the next bridge.
The relay toured the Parc de la Villette, which was transformed into the Parc des Nations, holding the ‘clubhouses’ of a number of countries, led by France in the Grande Halle and featuring Brazil in a circus tent and Mongolia in yurts.
The relay then took to the water and glided along the Canal de l’Ourcq, with the gathering audience roaring and singing a football song, towards the Canal Saint-Martin and its final rendezvous with the symbolic cauldron.