Decathlete Kevin Mayer carries the flame in Montpellier, Monday May 13. PASCAL GUYOT / AFP
“There are priorities in life. » At the instance of Sophie Durand, who, in Lagrasse, a small village (550 inhabitants) in Aude, made her two daughters miss school on Thursday May 16 to see the Olympic flame, there have been many French women and men for almost ten days, traveling to witness the passing of the torch relay. This start of the journey, which should lead to Paris on July 26, the day of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, constitutes a popular success.
From Marseille, from where it left on May 8 and 9, to Toulouse, where it arrived on Friday May 17, via Millau (Aveyron), Montpellier and Perpignan, the Olympic flame attracts a crowd that “exceeds a little what we anticipated”, we recognize from the Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP), Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.
Daily reports show that “it’s systematically above what we expected”underlines the ministry, which mentions an attendance of 20% to 30% higher than projections.
If the public authorities say ” pleasantly surprised “ by this start of the relay, it has nevertheless been several weeks – even months – that they have been repeating that this event would constitute the first concrete translation of the Games for the French and, as such, mark a “shift” in terms of craze.
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There were, however, some doubts about the proof of these assertions. Notably because this torch relay, unlike the Tour de France for example, takes place, for a very large part, over a period when the country is still at work.
Two test moments
The success recorded in Marseille showed straight away that there was a wait. The question was whether this success would be duplicable given the specificities of Marseille: arrival of the flame on the three-masted White and festivities on two public holidays.
The rest of the route in the Var, the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and the Bouches-du-Rhône confirmed this beginning of popular enthusiasm. But, here too, the context was special, because we were still in the long Ascension weekend, a holiday for many people.
The first “real test” took place on Monday May 13, the first working day, with the relay passing through Millau, Sète and Montpellier. A second “test” moment also took place on Wednesday May 15, when unpredictable weather arrived in Perpignan. In both cases, this did not reduce the crowds.
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2024-05-17 13:01:16
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