Mont-Saint-Michel, West Indies, Palace of Versailles: for more than two months from May 8, 2024, the Olympic flame will pass through more than 400 French cities, a journey that is intended to be “festive”, despite threats of disruption by activists. The course, which was unveiled on Friday, is now official. If all the local authorities have not responded to the call, in part for some because of the cost deemed excessive, the Olympic flame will still cross 64 territories for more than two months. After being lit on April 16 in Olympia, the torch will carry out a nine-day relay in Greece before taking the boat to reach France.
But not just any boat. The flame will sail on the Mediterranean aboard the mythical Belem, one of the oldest three-master in Europe, to arrive on May 8 in Marseille, the date of the start of its journey which will bring it to Paris, on July 26.
The location of the lighting of the cauldron in Paris has still not officially been decided, the hypothesis of the Eiffel Tower, which has been mentioned several times, has not been confirmed by the boss of the Cojo, Tony Estanguet. Between these dates, it will therefore cross 64 territories, including 5 overseas, and 400 cities, 65 of which will close each stage, concerts and sporting events to boot. The course will not be linear, with chip jumps to connect the partner territories.
Obviously, like the route of the Tour de France, the flame, treated with the respect worthy of a Head of State, will be accompanied by a caravan, made up of sponsors. And as for the Tour de France, it will pass through emblematic places in the country. After arriving in Marseille, it will pass through several cities in the south, such as Toulon, Montpellier, Carcassonne, Toulouse, before passing through the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, and heading to Dordogne, then Charente and Vendée.
Arrived in Finistère after going to Mont-Saint-Michel, she will then take another boat from Brest: she will indeed join the West Indies aboard the Relais des Océans, the Maxi Banque Populaire trimaran XI skippered by Armel Le Cléac’ h, to spend nine days there, before returning to mainland France. She will then attack France by the east face, starting from the south to arrive in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, and finish in the Paris region, visiting in particular the castle of Versailles, or even that of Chambord. “Iconic places”, sums up Paris 2024.
As for the torchbearers, whose selection process is still in progress, they will be 10,000, including 3,000 collectively. Each torchbearer will carry the flame for approximately four minutes over a distance of 200 meters. A third of the flame bearers will be selected by the organizing committee and the sports movement, another third by the sponsors of the torch relay BPCE (bank and insurance) and Coca-Cola, another third by the other partners of the Olympic Games and the last 10% by the territories hosting the flame.
The Olympic flame has not passed through France since 2008 in Paris, a day in April that turned into a fiasco. The passage of the torch in the capital had indeed been enamelled with numerous incidents, against a backdrop of tension between Beijing, organizer of the Olympic Games, and Tibet, many of whose sympathizers had come along the route to denounce China’s attitude.
“It’s true that this moment was significant, especially on securing the flame,” recalls a source close to the Cojo. And this issue of security around the torch relay has recently become a little more significant. Securing the route is ensured by the State services which have taken “very seriously”, according to a source close to the Cojo, the threats weighing on the crossing of the flame, in particular because of the social climate born of the reform of the retreats and many scattered calls to disrupt the course.
Without wanting to detail the device, the committee assured that the flame would be protected by a “travelling security bubble” which will protect the flame and its bearers. “We know that some might try something, that Extinction Rebellion activists or whatever will throw things at the flame, block the course. We obviously took that into account, ”a source close to the Olympic mysteries told AFP.
