in Marseille, the ceremony welcoming the Olympic flame

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79 days before the official start of the Paris Olympic Games, which will take place from July 26 to August 11, France’s second city welcomes the arrival of the flame and the lighting ceremony of the first Olympic cauldron, around 7:45 p.m. Nearly 150,000 people are currently in the Old Port.

Shortly after 8 a.m. this Wednesday morning, the Belemlegendary three-masted ship, ancient glory of the merchant navy, was still off the coast of Marseille, beyond the Frioul islands and the Planier lighthouse, on a calm sea and under a radiant sun.

The arrival ceremony of the Olympic flame first began with a gigantic maritime parade, with 1,024 boats registered to escort the Belem in the northern then southern harbors of the Phocaean city, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Olympic torch must come off the ship, with the 2012 Olympic champion in the 50-meter freestyle, Florent Manaudou, as the first bearer on French soil. Her sister, Laure, Olympic champion and triple medalist in 2004 in Athens, was the first French bearer in Greece, during the flame lighting ceremony in Olympia.

The lighting ceremony of the first Olympic cauldron, on the Quai de la Fraternité should begin at 7:45 p.m., at the end of a floating pontoon of around one hundred meters in the shape of an athletics track. Will Florent Manaudou be in charge of this mission or will he pass the baton to another personality for this symbolic ignition? For the time being, the suspense remains total on this point.

Live

Below, follow the key events of the ceremony (times in UT). Refresh the page

5:54 p.m.: End of the Olympic flame welcoming ceremony in France

The Olympic flame spends the night in Marseille. She will continue to travel until July 26, the day of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. The flame will pass through almost all French departments, including overseas.

5:42 p.m.: “ The honor of a lifetime », assures Florent Manaudou

“ It was a great pride » to carry the Olympic flame, assures Florent Manaudou. “ It’s the honor of a lifetime “.

5:35 p.m. : the Olympic cauldron is lit by Jul, the French rap star

One hundred years after the last Summer Olympic Games in France, the Olympic flame is back on French soil.

5:31 p.m.: Florent Manaudou passes the flame to Nantenin Keita, Paralympic athletics champion

The 2012 Olympic swimming champion in London came down from Belem. Under a radiant sun, he passed the flame to the first torchbearer, Nantenin Keita, Paralympic athletics champion.

5:24 p.m.: Florent Manaudou still on Belem

At the bow of the ship, Florent Manaudou brandishes the Olympic flame while greeting the crowd. It is still on Belem. “ He continues to proudly show the flame », observes Christophe Diremszian of RFI.

5:22 p.m.: the Patrouille de France parades with a blue, white and red plume

A blue, white and red plume from the French patrol streaks the Marseille sky, to the applause of the spectators.

5:31 p.m.: Florent Manaudou passes the flame to Nantenin Keita, Paralympic athletics champion

Florent Manaudou, with the Olympic flame, came down from Belem. Florent Manaudou passes the flame to Nantenin Keita, Paralympic athletics champion.

5:17 p.m. : The French patrol celebrates, in the air in Marseille, the arrival of the Olympic flame.

5:16 p.m. : The French President, Emmanuel Macron, applauds the arrival of Belem, surrounded by his wife Brigitte Macron and Tony Estanguet, the president of the organizing committee for the Paris Olympics.

5:13 p.m. : Christophe Diremszian, one of our special correspondents, describes the “ indescribable smoke » of the fireworks display which welcomes Belem to the Old Port of Marseille.

5:08 p.m.: The Olympic flame entered the Old Port of Marseille shortly after 7 p.m. on Wednesday, aboard the three-masted Belem, from where it will disembark on French soil, a key step in the countdown to the opening of the Games of Paris-2024 on July 26.

After a grandiose six-hour maritime parade in the harbor of France’s second city, the Belem, which left Greece twelve days ago, returned to applause to the Old Port where the Greeks founded Massalia 2,600 years ago. years, noted AFP journalists.

5:06 p.m.: French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron are in Marseille for the Olympic flame lighting ceremony. The Belem will be welcomed by a fireworks display of “biodegradable recycled confetti”, by the music of the Marseille Philharmonic Orchestra and by the essential “tifos”, these impressive banners of the supporters of the aptly named Olympique de Marseille.

5:01 p.m.: in Marseille, a thousand anti-Olympics demonstrated their disapproval

A thousand people demonstrated in Marseille on Wednesday to denounce the Olympic Games with harmful social and environmental consequences and to demand the exclusion of Israel, as had been the apartheid regime of South Africa.

“ The Olympic Games, with the capitalist and neoliberal logics that drive them, will inevitably have harmful consequences for the cities that host them and certain categories of the population. “, declared one of the demonstrators, Antoine, to Agence France-Presse.

5:50 p.m.: The first photos from our special correspondent Pierre-René Worms for this day