2023-07-03 16:28:57
We already knew that it would criss-cross the twenty Parisian arrondissements. And that she would stop in several emblematic places: the Hôtel de Ville, Roland-Garros or even the National Assembly. Anne Hidalgo revealed this Monday morning the details of the route of the Olympic flame in the capital during a press conference at the Carnavalet museum. A symbolic place that traces the history of the city, from its origins to the present day.
The outline of the national route had already been unveiled by the organizing committee of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games on June 23. “But we made the suspense last for Paris, assumes the socialist mayor. We are lucky to have two days of torch relay, July 14 and 15, 2024.” “We are going to show the best of Paris and our values,” adds Tony Estanguet, president of the organizing committee.
The twenty districts crossed
The 14th of July. 8th: Champs-Élysées; 7th: National Assembly; 6th century: Saint-Germain des Prés, Senate – Jardin du Luxembourg; 5th: Panthéon, Latin Quarter – La Sorbonne, Arab World Institute; Central Paris: Notre-Dame de Paris, Shoah Memorial – Wall of the Righteous, Carnavalet Museum, House of Victor Hugo; 11th: Bastille, Bataclan, Republic; 10th: Place du Colonel-Fabien; IX: Olympia; Paris Centre: rue de Rivoli, the Louvre, Hôtel de Ville.
The 15th of July. 12th century: Bois de Vincennes – Insep; 18th century: Porte de la Chapelle, Goutte d’Or district, Montmartre hill; 17th century: statues of the Mulatto Solitude & Alexandre Dumas; 8th century: Arc de Triomphe; 16th century: Bois de Boulogne – Louis-Vuitton Foundation, Simone-Mathieu court – Roland-Garros stadium; 15th century: aerial metro opposite the Eiffel Tower, memorial garden of the Children of Vel’ d’Hiv’; 14th century: place of Catalonia; 13th century: Butte-aux-Cailles, open-air street-art museum; 11th: Bastille; 19th century: Buttes-Chaumont; 20th: Belleville; XIth: Republic.
July 26. 19th century: Bassin de la Villette.
July 14 – a national holiday – will mainly be devoted to “all places of national and local power”. With a kick-off given on the Champs-Elysées and a first day which will end with “a kind of vigil at the Hôtel de Ville”, where the flame will spend the night. What about the traditional July 14 parade on the Champs-Élysées? “The device is being worked on with the Paris police headquarters and the State”, assures the mayor of Paris. According to information collected by Le Parisien, the event will not a priori take place on the most beautiful avenue in the world. Place de la Concorde (VIII) – where the parade usually ends – will still be under construction.
Infrastructure will be being installed to host events in new urban sports disciplines. The tricolor troops should therefore parade either on Avenue Foch or on the Cours de Vincennes from Place de la Nation. As for the fireworks, “it will not necessarily be the same as in previous years”, slips the mayor, without saying more.
The secret still kept for the day of the ceremony
On July 15, the flame will continue its journey through “the districts” of Paris. After its night at the Hôtel de Ville, the flame will therefore begin its journey at the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (Insep), in the Bois de Vincennes. It will then join the Porte de la Chapelle, in the very north of the capital, where a brand new Arena, under construction, will host several Olympic events. His route will end at the end of the day on the Place de la République.
The flame will then travel through the various departments of Île-de-France, before returning to ignite the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony on July 26. “That day, the relay will leave Seine-Saint-Denis via the Saint-Denis canal to enter Paris in the middle of the day, reveals Tony Estanguet. He will then join the Olympic ceremony. The details of this route should be kept secret until D-Day. Only the passage of the flame through the Bassin de la Villette then the Canal Saint-Martin has been announced.
“A great popular event”
There are also security issues to be resolved. “We have built this course with all the borough mayors, insists Emmanuel Grégoire, the first deputy mayor of Paris. We now have to fine-tune everything with the Paris police headquarters. »
A hundred torchbearers per day should carry this torch in the capital. A procession of around thirty people will accompany each bearer. “Except in the stalls, the points which are not connected to the course, specifies Pierre Rabadan, sports assistant. The flame will go to these places but not the whole procession. We also had to respect constraints and not do more than 30 km per day. »
All insist on one point: the torch relay must be “a great popular event”. A point that is all the more important “in the current context”, according to the mayor of Paris. A reference to the urban violence of recent days which erupted following the death of Nahel, this teenager killed by a policeman in Nanterre. “It is complex to bring together a whole country, abounds the elected official. But this flame is also an opportunity to bring hope. »
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