The images promise to be sumptuous. THE belem, one of the oldest three-masters in Europe, under full sail, escorted by an armada of boats, entering the harbor of Marseilles to bring to the Old Port the Olympic flame lit a few days earlier in Olympia, Greece . The Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop) revealed, on Friday February 3, during a press conference at the Marseille town hall, the scenario imagined for the arrival of the symbolic torch. , a century after the last summer games in France. A “incredible staging”according to the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan (various left), where the ancient myth of the Games blends with that of the creation of his city, “former Greek colony founded by sailors”.
More prosaically, this Marseille landing will be the festive starting point for the journey of the Olympic flame throughout France. A relay which must cross around sixty departments to symbolically reach the capital on July 14, 2024. “The first unmissable highlight of the Games”, for the president of Paris 2024, Tony Estanguet. “It all started in Marseille, you can be proud of it, forever the first”, enthused the triple Olympic champion, who is at the head of the organizing committee, thanking for “their collective commitment”, the president of the regional council, Renaud Muselier (Renaissance), the president of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and the metropolis of Aix-Marseille-Provence, Martine Vassal (various right), and the mayor of Marseille, seated at his sides.
Tony Estanguet expressed the wish for a torch relay “like the Games”: “spectacular”, “popular” And ” jock “. “When looking for a city that embodies these values, Marseille is obvious”, he assured, also recalling “international openness” of the second largest city in France, echoing “Games that want to be universal”. Present in Marseille, Emmanuel Grégoire, first deputy to the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo (Socialist Party) reminded him of the wish of his municipality that the Olympic Games (JO) be “the celebration of the whole country”.
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The precise date of the arrival of the flame on the Old Port has not been revealed. We only know that the belem should dock in May 2024, after ten days at sea from Athens. “Little Marseillais will travel to Olympia to bring back the flame”announced Benoît Payan.
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