for the passing of the Olympic flame, the Meuse and Verdun no longer wish to be confined to the past

The year 2024 will mark 80 years since the Normandy landings and 110 years since the start of the First World War; it is also the 40th anniversary of the “Verdun gesture”, President of the Republic François Mitterand (1981-1995) and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl (1982-1998), hand in hand, in front of the Douaumont ossuary, in the Meuse. This department, hoping to revive the memory of the passing of the Olympic flame on June 29, fought for the Verdun battlefield to be recognized as one of the “iconic sites” of Paris 2024 in the Grand-Est region – like Colombey-les- Deux-Eglises (Haute-Marne) or the Little Venice in Colmar (Haut-Rhin).

Two days after the lighting of the flame in Olympia (Greece) and the start of the journey, which would take it to Paris on July 26, the date of the opening ceremony, Maas presented on Thursday, April 18, the activities planned during the passing of the baton. The goal: to make yourself attractive and try to stand out from the other 64 stages, especially by highlighting your heritage. Thus, two of the seven territories crossed are in the city of Verdun: the center – where the ceremony of lighting the cauldron of the last torchbearer will be held in the evening – and the battlefields.

Creativity and sobriety

This duality corresponds, according to Nicolas Barret, director of the Verdun Memorial, to “double memory” which was built in Verdun at the end of the First World War. While patriotic commemoration was celebrated in the city, particularly with the construction of the Victory Monument, the veterans wanted to keep the 1916 battlefield intact.

As the flame passes near the trenches where more than 300,000 soldiers perished, sobriety will be required – and youth will be in the spotlight. The short route will start from the Douaumont ossuary, a place of memory and contemplation where French and German students will gather, to arrive at the Verdun Memorial, a place of transfer.

The desire here was to have strong artistic creation and we saw things in a big way. A little too much perhaps: The initial scenography project, orchestrated by director and choreographer Benjamin Millepied, fell through, due to a lack of budget and due to security restrictions involving a limited number of spectators. The street artist duo Lek & Sowat were therefore tasked with creating a more lasting work, modern stained glass on the memorial, playing on the symbolism of the light of the flame and the phrase of Maurice Genevoix: “May the light finally guide them towards peace. » The great-grandson of the humanist writer and soldier, pantheonized in 2020, will carry the flame of the memorial.

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