Marseille will experience a foretaste of the Olympic Games on May 8 with the arrival of the Olympic flame in the city. On May 9, the flame will travel through the streets of the Marseille city, carried by several torchbearers. While waiting for the festivities to begin, here is what you need to know about these two days of celebrations.
It is first of all the Belem, famous three-masted ship, flagship of the French navy, which will put on a show. This ship, one of the oldest in Europe, built in 1896, the same year as the first Olympic Games modern, has been carrying the Olympic flame across the Mediterranean since April 27, and its departure from the port of Athens. It should reach the end of its hull around 11 a.m. – French time – on May 8 off the coast of the Marseille city. This is when the festivities at sea will begin.
THE Belem will parade for six hours in the North harbor, then the South harbor of the city, between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Some lucky people will be able to approach the ship up close, because more than 1,000 private boats are expected to follow it at sea, before it docks at the city’s port, around 7 p.m.
Florent Manaudou, first bearer of the flame on French soil
It is at this precise moment that the second sequence of festivities will begin. As a symbol, the flame, which arrives from Greece, will be extracted from Belem in the Old Port of Marseille, a city founded by the Greeks 2,600 years ago.
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