Under radiant sunshine, the Olympic flame arrived on Wednesday aboard the three-masted Belem off the coast of Marseille, where it will disembark in the evening, awaited by 150,000 people, 100 years after the last Summer Olympics in France.
A dream panorama
At the exit of the village of L’Estaque, located in the northwest of the city, the curious crowd to admire the Belem parade with a breathtaking view of the coastline. Alain came, equipped with his binoculars, so as not to miss a thing. “We see it well, we even see it very well. It is well surrounded, there are a multitude of small boats with, in the background, the lighthouse with a beautiful life, the beautiful sea and the Good Mother there in the background who looks at us.
The Belem and its train of ships then headed for L’Estaque beach to follow the coastline fairly closely. “There, we can’t do better. He really pleases us, he comes in front of us, he parades, we enjoy the show. With all the boats behind, it looks like a ballet. No, it’s really magnificent”, says this Marseillaise who did not expect to see Belem so close. Many were present before 9 a.m., whether on the sea wall, on the beach or even on the side of the road.
© NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP
The Olympic cauldron will be lit at 7:45 p.m.
79 days before the opening ceremony of the Paris Games (July 26-August 11), the Belem arrived off the coast of France’s second city, sailing on the calm waves of the Mediterranean under a blue sky, noted a AFP journalist aboard a customs ship.
The great maritime parade planned for the arrival of the Olympic flame in France began on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m., with a thousand boats escorting the three-masted Belem in the harbor of Marseille, under a bright sun, noted AFP journalists at sea. The boats sounded bagpipes, sirens and horns to celebrate the arrival of this Olympic symbol after 12 days at sea from Greece, less than three months before the Paris Olympics (July 26-August 11).
In the Old Port, where the Olympic cauldron will be lit for the first time at 7:45 p.m. (5:45 p.m. GMT), technicians are busy Wednesday morning making the final preparations for the celebration, before the arrival of the crowd and under the supervision of an important police force.
Florent Manaudou, first bearer of the flame
Florent Manaudou, Olympic swimming champion in 2012, will be the first bearer of the flame, who will land on a floating athletics track installed for the occasion. “It’s gone, finally! It’s the beginning”, summarized Tuesday evening Tony Estanguet, the president of the organizing committee for the Paris Olympics, Marseille, which has become “the center of the world”, as proudly displayed its mayor, Benoît Payan.
A billion viewers and 150,000 people on site, as well as some 1,500 accredited journalists from around the world, are expected to watch the flame land. “Before France, Marseille catches fire”, headline The Parisianthe only national daily to run its front page on “Olympic fever”.
The ship will enter the Old Port at 7 p.m.
For several days, to prepare for this first highlight of the pre-Olympic Games, work has been intense on the Old Port of Marseille, in the same Lacydon cove where Greek sailors who arrived 2,600 years ago founded Massalia. The 3,400 moored boats were all visited by mine clearance teams and their 80 dogs. And the giant letters MARSEILLE, installed at the northern entrance to the city, were illuminated in the colors of the Olympic rings, like the Opera or the Palais du Pharo.
At 7 p.m. (5:00 p.m. GMT), the ship will majestically enter the Old Port. In the presence of President Emmanuel Macron, he will be welcomed by a fireworks display of “recycled biodegradable confetti”, by the music of the Marseille Philharmonic Orchestra and by the unmissable “tifos”, these impressive banners of the supporters of the aptly named Olympic of Marseille, the city’s emblematic football club. Then the Olympic cauldron will be lit, Quai de la Fraternité, at the mouth of the famous Canebière. But the suspense persists around the identity of the person who will be responsible for this mission, who will perhaps not be Florent Manaudou.
Soprano and Alonzo will give a concert
Finally, a major concert by Marseille rappers Soprano and Alonzo will conclude this day which will also have been a security challenge, with more than 6,000 members of the police mobilized, including police officers from the elite Raid units or members of the nautical brigades. With the agents reporting to the town hall (firefighters, municipal police officers, etc.), the workforce will reach 8,500 people, more than those deployed in September 2023 for the visit of Pope Francis.
Monitored on land and at sea, the Marseille city will also be under an aerial “security bubble”, with an Awacs radar surveillance plane, three bursts, helicopters and an anti-drone device.
Not just happy people
The arrival of the flame in Marseille, however, does not only make people happy. As of Tuesday, five elected environmentalists from Marseille denounced “the distortion of the Olympic ideal”, in a column published on the website of Release. And several collectives have called for a festive demonstration in the city center on Wednesday, early in the afternoon, to “show that we can have a popular celebration in the name of sport, without exploiting, oppressing or destroying”.
On Thursday, the flame will again be in Marseille, where it will begin a 69-day journey across France, including mainland France and overseas. Arrival planned in Paris on July 26, the day of the opening ceremony, for the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. This long “relay of scouts”, which will pass through the castles of the Loire, the D-Day beaches and even Mont-Saint-Michel, will leave in the morning at Notre-Dame de la Garde, the “Good Mother” overlooking Marseille.