Two safety lamps from the Olympic committee have just arrived in the mining basin in the historic center of Lewarde. Two lamps that carried the Olympic flame during the Paris 2024 Games. They can be seen as part of the exhibition “Mining is sport”, until May 4, 2025.
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So that the Olympic fire does not go out, during its entire transport, on board the Belem, or even from one department to another, between the relays which took place with the Olympic torch, the flame did not cease to burn. And this thanks to miners’ lamps.
Few pieces exist, it is a privilege for the Lewarde museum to acquire two. Signed Paris 2024. Lamps almost identical to those that the miners took underground.
A miner’s lamp.
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© WHEN
They arrived in the North, well packaged, well protected… Two flame transport lamps from the Olympic and Paralympic games now take up residence in the historic mining center of Lewarde, near Douai.
Luc Piralla, director of the historic mining center explains that “These objects are almost identical to the standard model of lamp that the miners took underground. They are pieces of French history, all the more so for us who highlight the mine and its technology”.
Except for one detail, a hole in the glass of the lamp for the flame relay, which did not exist, and could even have been fatal in the event of firedamp.
“It is through this hole that the flame was lit during its journey” explains, Emmanuelle Hibernie, in charge of collections at the historic mining center, who specifies that “the miner had a lighter integrated into the base of his lamp” to prevent everything from exploding with the gas potentially present in the mine.
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The historic mining center welcomes two Paris 2024 miners’ lamps
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©France Télévisions T. Millot. S. Hasnaoui. J. Vlasseman
One of these two Paris 2024 lamps is perhaps the one that carried the flame aboard the famous Belem.
>> Also read : “If I could, I would stay again”: Clara, trainee sailor, recounts her 12 extraordinary days aboard the Belem
They can now be seen in the exhibition Mining is sport where we recall the strong links between minors and sport in the region.
The miner’s lamp on the RC Lens jersey
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© France Télévisions
These two new pieces therefore have their place in the historic mining center.
Another bit of Paris 2024 shining in the mining area after the notable passages of the flame at the start of summer.
The Wallers Arenberg headframe last summer, during the passing of the Olympic Flame.
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© France Télévisions
There were only 25 lamps used during the Olympic and Paralympic games… They are now collector’s items.
TV report by Thomas Millot, S. Hasnaoui and J. Vlasseman / FranceTV.
