79 days before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, she is finally here. The flame, currently on board the Belem, was seen this Wednesday, May 8 morning off the coast of Marseille, noted an AFP journalist on board a customs ship. The three-masted ship is supposed to reach the harbor of the Phocaean city around 11 a.m. and spend the day there, on the occasion of a major maritime parade. For this, 1,024 boats are registered to escort the Belem in the northern then southern harbors of the Phocaean city, until 5 p.m.
Shortly after 8:00 a.m., the legendary three-masted ship, former glory of the merchant navy, was still off the coast of Marseille harbor, beyond the Frioul islands and the Planier lighthouse, on a calm sea and under a radiant sun. .
The Belem will then arrive at the Old Port of Marseille at 7:45 p.m., with some 150,000 people expected. For its arrival on French soil, the Olympic flame will be carried by Florent Manaudou, whose big sister Laure has already had the honor of capturing it two weeks ago in Olympia, Greece.
Then there will be the lighting ceremony of the first Olympic cauldron, on the Quai de la Fraternité, at the end of a floating pontoon of around a 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? The suspense remained total on this point Wednesday morning.
The 33-year-old French swimmer, gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympic Games, will be the first of 11,000 torchbearers in France. The latter will circulate in the city of Marseille this Wednesday May 8, as well as Thursday 9. Before continuing its journey in the rest of France.
The Olympic flame will circulate throughout mainland France as well as overseas until July 26, the date of the opening ceremony of the Paris Games. The last torchbearer – whose identity is still not known – will then set the Olympic cauldron ablaze. This will end on August 11, at the end of the Games.
