The traditional opening parade of Olympic sporting delegations is set to take place in boats on the river Seine on July 26, the first time the ceremony has been held outside the main athletics stadium.
After months of speculation about the size of the crowd permitted to watch the flotilla, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told the France 2 channel on Tuesday "around 300,000" ticketed spectators would attend.
He had earlier referred to around 600,000 when speaking in the Senate in October 2022, while other members of the government and organisers had spoken of 400,000-500,000. "I know that we have the best security forces in the world and that we will succeed in showing that not only that we can win medals (at the Olympics) but that we can play host to the world without any problems," Darmanin told the channel.
The idea of the open-air ceremony has been resisted by some senior figures in the security forces because of the difficulty of managing such large crowds and the risk of terror attacks.