Exit the idea of the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre Museum. To welcome the Olympic flame during the Paris Games, the Games Organizing Committee (Cojo), in concert with the Paris town hall, would have finally chosen the Tuileries garden, located in the heart of Paris, almost a kilometer away as the crow flies from City Hall, specifies a well-informed source at Agence France Presse. Information already revealed by the newspaper The Team last week.
More precisely, the chosen installation area is located at the level of the Large Round Basin of the Jardin des Tuileries, close to the east entrance, opposite the Louvre Pyramid. A decision which would have been taken “several weeks ago”, again according to this source consulted by AFP.
Nestled between the Louvre Palace and Place de La Concorde, the Tuileries Garden would be more accessible to the public. The main reason why the organizers finally decided to install the Olympic cauldron there which will host the flame throughout the duration of the Olympic Games. In addition to accessibility, the area “allows optimal security”, argues the source. And added: “there will be law enforcement 24 hours a day to protect the flame and the public will be able to see it in particular thanks to passages on the side of the Garden which are raised”.
Maintain the suspense
Questioned by our colleagues from AFP, the organizing committee, however, refused to deny or confirm this information. As did the sports assistant at Paris City Hall, Pierre Rabadan, who did not wish to “make a comment”.
“There have already been a lot of rumors about its location,” explains Cojo, adding: “what we can say is that in the spirit of the Games in the heart of the city, we want the basin to be installed at heart of Paris, for the symbolism and so that it is visible to all.”
The Minister of Sports and Olympics, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has also kicked in for the moment. “She will especially arrive in Marseille from May 8,” she eluded to our colleagues The Team.
Lit on April 16, arrived in Marseille on May 8
A mystery remains: will the basin be lit at the Tuileries by the last bearer of the flame? Failing this, a temporary cauldron will be lit elsewhere during the opening ceremony and then moved. During previous editions of the Olympic Games, the cauldron was lit in a stadium before being moved to the cities. This was the case in Rio, during the 2016 games and in Tokyo in 2021.
As a reminder, the torch relay, which will be lit on April 16 in Olympia (Greece), will begin in France in Marseille on May 8, after a journey of more than ten days between Athens and the Phocaean city on the three-masted Belem . After a journey of almost more than two and a half months, passing through nearly 400 cities in France, the relay will end on July 26 in the French capital. For now, the name of the last torchbearer remains secret.