the Dantesque journey of the Olympic flame to Paris in 68 stages

4 mins

The fever rises around 2024 Olympic Games. On Wednesday May 8, Marseille welcomed with great fanfare the Belem, a ship coming from the cradle of the Olympics, Greece, with the famous flame on board. And this Thursday, torch in hand, Basile Boli, famous for offering the Champions League to OM in 1993, began the first of 68 stages of the torch relay.

It’s a real journey that begins for sport and France. For two and a half months, the Olympic flame must travel across a very large part of the country, passing through places full of symbols.

History and heritage on the program

After the first days in the south of the country, including a passage through the Arles arenas and the immense Millau viaduct, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the flame is in Corsica on May 14, for its first stage in outside France. After a day on the Isle of Beauty, she must return to the continent and explore the South-West.

Several visits to world-famous places await him. Among these historic places: the Lascaux caveBordeaux and its vineyards, the Futuroscope of Poitiers, the Landing beaches in NormandyMont Saint-Michel… And it is from Brest that the Olympic flame must leave for another major challenge towards Overseas.

The Ocean Relay: six destinations at the end of the world

Winner of the Vendée Globe once, the skipper Armel Le Cléac’h will leave aboard the sailboat Maxi Banque populaire XI towards the French overseas territories for the great Relais des Océans. The Olympic flame will first burn in Guyana, notably in Kourou space center, for his only visit to South America. Then head to the South Pacific and the farthest point from Paris: New Caledonia, located more than 16,700 km from the capital.

Then, the flame meets in the Indian Ocean on the island of Reunion, the southernmost French land of the Relay, before returning to the Pacific in Polynesia. This great journey across the oceans concludes with Guadeloupe, then Martinique, before returning to the Côte d’Azur with, among other things, a few strides on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.

A July 14th on the Champs for the flame

At the end of June, the torch bearers parade to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, then honor the memory of the more than 300,000 fighters who fell at Verdun in 1916 during the Battle of Verdun, a major event of the First World War. At the beginning of July, the north of the country, with Lille and Lens. The flame then gradually descends towards the capital.

Olympic Games oblige, the protocol of the National Day is turned upside down this year. THE July 14th, the flame travels through Paris and of course the legendary Champs Élysées, returning for once the usual military parade to Vincennes. And after a final tour in Île-de-France, the porters complete their mission in Saint-Denis and Paris, on July 26, for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Who to ignite the cauldron?

In total, nearly 11,000 torchbearers are called upon to carry the flame along a journey of approximately 12,000 km over 68 days. The 65 territories involved in this relay had to pay 180,000 euros each. Some departments refused, which explains the absence of certain regions and cities such as Lyon and Grenoble. Some 400 cities are crossed by the Olympic flame before the start of the competition.

The torchbearers are not all known yet, but it is already certain that certain celebrities, from the world of sport or other spheres, will take part. Jumbled together, we can cite Tony Parker, Laura Flessel, Guy Roux, but also Thomas Pesquet, Nicole Ferroni and even the drag queen Miss Martini.

A mystery will, however, remain until the end concerning the identity of the elected official who will have the oh-so-symbolic and important mission of lighting the cauldron, at the end of the opening ceremony, and joining in the history of illustrious names including Mohamed Ali, Cathy Freeman and Vanderlei de Lima.