Rlit on April 16, in the sanctuary of Olympia, in Greece, the Olympic flame will be officially transferred to France, organizing country of the next Olympic Games, during a reception at the French embassy in Greece, in the evening from April 26. The next morning, she will begin a 12-day, 2,000-kilometer journey across the Mediterranean, aboard the famous three-masted ship Belem, at the end of which the flame will arrive on French soil on May 8, at the port of Marseille. Tony Estanguet announced that Florent Manaudou would be the first torchbearer of the Olympic flame on French soil, in Marseille, on May 8.
The second City in France serves as the starting point for the long journey of the flame in France: 400 cities will be visited with 65 stopover points, for 68 days, until the date of the official start of the Olympic Games, the 26 July in Paris. All territories are concerned: mainland France but also Corsica and overseas territories with the “Relay of the Oceans” from June 7 to 17.
READ ALSO Paris 2024 Olympic Games: perimeters, traffic… Paris cut in two before the opening ceremonyMany historical sites will have the opportunity to be highlighted during this trip: the caves of Lascaux, the medieval cities of Carcassonne, but also the castles of the Loire and that of Versailles, the abbey of Mont-Saint -Michel as well as the Landing beaches and the Verdun Memorial.
The flame’s journey will also pay tribute to the great figures of France, such as Joan of Arc in Orléans (Loiret), one of the fathers of European construction, Robert Schuman, in Scy-Chazelles (Moselle), Charles de Gaulle in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises (Haute-Marne) or Édith Piaf in Paris.
But also to French traditions with a detour to the vineyards of Saint-Émilion (Gironde), Chablis (Burgundy), Layon (Loire) as well as the Millau Viaduct (Aveyron), the Kourou space center (Guyana), Mount Ventoux (Vaucluse), the Puy du Fou park (Vendée), the Arles arenas (Bouches-du-Rhône), the International City of the French Language (Aisne), the Angoulême comic strip museum (Charente) ), the Louvre-Lens museum (Pas-de-Calais), the Palais des Festivals in Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes).
The complete program of the Olympic flame journey in France:
May 8: arrival of the flame in Marseille
May 9: Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône)
May 10: Toulon (Var)
May 11: Manosque (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence)
May 12: Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône)
May 13: Millau-Sète-Montpellier
May 14: Bastia (Corsica)
May 15: Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales)
May 16: Carcassonne (Aude)
May 17: Toulouse (Haute-Garonne)
May 18: Auch (Gers)
May 19: Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées)
May 20: Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)
May 22: Périgueux (Dordogne)
May 23: Bordeaux and Libourne
May 24: Angoulême (Charente)
May 25: Greater Poitiers and Futuroscope (Vienna)
May 27: Châteauroux (Indre)
May 28: Angers (Maine-et-Loire)
May 29: Laval (Mayenne)
May 30: Caen (Calvados)
May 31: Mont-Saint-Michel (Manche)
1er June: Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine)
June 2: Niort (Deux-Sèvres)
June 4: Les Sables-d’Olonne (Vendée)
June 5: La Baule-Escoublac (Loire-Atlantique)
June 6: Vannes (Morbihan)
June 7: Brest (Finistère)
June 9: Cayenne (Guyana)
June 11: New Caledonia
June 12: Saint-Denis (Reunion)
June 13: Papeete (French Polynesia)
June 15: Baie-Mahault (Guadeloupe)
June 17: Fort-de-France (Martinique)
June 18: Nice (Alpes-Maritimes)
June 19: Avignon (Vaucluse)
June 20: Valence (Drôme)
June 21: Vichy (Allier)
June 22: Saint-Étienne (Loire)
June 23: Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (Haute-Savoie)
June 25: Besançon (Doubs)
June 26: Strasbourg (Alsace)
June 27: Metz (Moselle)
June 28: Saint-Dizier (Haute-Marne)
June 29: Verdun (Meuse)
June 30: Reims (Marne)
July 2: Lille (North)
July 3: Lens-Liévin (Pas-de-Calais)
July 4: Amiens (Somme)
July 5: Le Havre (Seine-Maritime)
July 6: Vernon (Eure)
July 7: Chartres (Eure-et-Loir)
July 8: Blois (Loir-et-Cher)
July 10: Orléans (Loiret)
July 11: Auxerre (Yonne)
July 12: Dijon (Côte-d’Or)
July 13: Troyes (Aube)
July 14: Paris
July 17: Saint-Quentin (Aisne)
July 18: Beauvais (Oise)
July 19: Soisy-sous-Montmorency (Val-d’Oise)
July 20: Meaux (Seine-et-Marne)
July 21: Créteil (Val-de-Marne)
July 22: Évry-Courcouronnes (Essonne)
July 23: Versailles (Yvelines)
July 24: Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine)
July 25: Seine-Saint-Denis
July 26: Paris
