Alonzo’s concert started half an hour ago. Night has fallen on the Old Port, the number of 150,000 spectators has long been reached, but the crowd continues to flock to the Canebière to get closer to the show. The start of it was delayed after crowd movements and some discomfort and the police have already let a few thousand additional spectators pass through to reduce the pressure on the barriers. A row of CRS is deployed to deter any further push. The tension rises, then falls after 10 p.m.
The party was clearly a victim of its success. Because until then, Marseille, which had awarded itself the title of ” center of the world “for one day, Wednesday May 8, achieved a flawless performance to celebrate the arrival in France of the Olympic flame, entering the port of France’s second city aboard a famous three-masted ship, THE Belem.
The day’s program took place without any notable hitches in a climate of popular fervor. At sea, where a myriad of boats crossed in the calm waves, as on land, where a patient crowd followed the festivities – 230,000 people attended, according to calculations by the Marseille town hall – or in the skies, electrified by the Patrouille de France parade.
On the podium set up in front of the Quai des Belges, triple Olympic champion Marie-Jo Pérec expressed her emotion. The former glory of OM Didier Drogba made the public sing as at the Stade-Vélodrome and the astronaut Thomas Pesquet underlined the symbolic aspect of the event with the accents of a politician: “France finds itself with these Games. We are going to commune, these are things that don’t happen often. » Emmanuel Macron was whistled upon his arrival at the Old Port and Naestro, “the tenor of the street”, stirred up the crowd with his interpretation of The Marseillaise.
The mayor, Benoît Payan, could savor the moment: “The Marseillais won the first gold medal”. “A simple ceremony, which brings joy”, added Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, archbishop of the diocese of Marseille. And when a rainbow – almost the Olympic colors! – came to frame the Old Port just a few minutes after the cauldron ignited at the end of the first torch relay, the man of the church said to the mayor of the city: “When it was all over, the sky put its touch. And you can’t order that. »
“It changes the way you look at the city a little”
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