Paris 2024 Olympic flame: open to all in Paris on 14 July
The Paris City Hall will open its doors on the night of the national holiday to allow anyone to come and admire the Olympic flame. The torch will travel through the French capital on 14 and 15 July. It will return on 26 July for the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. This was announced by the Mayor of the city, Anne Hidalgo.
The Olympic flame will be open to the public on 14 July, France’s national holiday. The Paris City Hall will open its doors that night. This will allow the public to admire the Olympic flame a few days before the Games begin. “The City Hall will be open all night so that Parisians and visitors can admire it,” said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, presenting the events planned around the Games, as reported by AFP.
This will be a “great vigil” for the flame. It will “sleep in the halls” of the building without being extinguished, added the Franco-Spanish mayor.
The Olympic flame will tour Paris on 14 and 15 July before returning to the western part of the capital on 26 July, hours before the opening ceremony on the banks of the Seine. During the Olympic Games, which will last until 11 August, the public will be able to visit the illuminated cauldron in the Tuileries Gardens. It is located next to the Louvre, a popular tourist attraction. Twelve days before the Opening Ceremony, Paris will host the traditional fireworks display on 14 July at the height of the Eiffel Tower, which will then be adorned with the five Olympic rings.
The flame left Olympia on the 16th of April, after a ceremony that was a welcome back to the public after the pandemic and the postponement of Tokyo 2020. In front of the Prytaneum, the flame was handed over to the Olympic rowing champion, Stefanos Douskos, with a choreography by almost 30 priestesses. Douskos in turn handed it to the French swimmer Laure Manadou, who won three medals at the 2004 Games in Athens. After a tour of Greece, the flame set off on 27 April on board the Belem, France’s oldest schooner. It crossed the Mediterranean.
It is due to arrive in Marseille on 8 May. From there, it will begin a tour of the French countryside. It already has an itinerary. It will arrive on the Seine on the day of the ceremony, coming from Seine-Saint-Denis via the Saint-Martin Canal, according to the event’s organisers. During its daily journey across France,it is estimated that around thirty people will guard the torch. There will be around 100 daily bearers and around 10,000 in total since it left Olympia on 16 April.