Olympics in Paris 2024: The sailing boat Belem leaves for France with the Olympic flame on board

The sailboat is expected on May 8 in Marseille, where the torch relay across France will then start, until the opening ceremony of the Games on July 26.
“It is such a great feeling,” declared Tony Estanguet on this occasion, President of the JOP Organizing Committee, who had symbolically received the flame the day before in Athens, from the hands of the President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee Spyros Capralos.
“Now we are going to bring (her) back to France with this boat, the Belem, which also dates from 1896”, the year of the first modern Olympic Games, “what a wonderful coincidence!” he added.
Lit on April 16 in Olympia, the Olympic flame was handed over to the French organizers on Friday during a ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.

She must now reach France, where she arrives via Marseille, a city founded by the Greeks around 600 BC, on May 8.
Before that, on Sunday, the ship will travel through the Corinth Canal, a 19th-century engineering feat built with input from French banks and engineers.
Before entering the old port, Belem will parade in the port of the Phocaean city and will be accompanied by 1024 boats. Entertainment is planned on land and at sea throughout the day.
The following day, the Olympic relay begins in the city, with stops planned at the Notre-Dame de la Garde Basilica or the Stade Vélodrome.
She will then cross the country, particularly in the Antilles and French Polynesia, to Paris, where the opening ceremony of the Games, scheduled for July 26 to August 11, will take place.