Before a crowd that packed the seafront and hills of this ancient port city of Marseille, the Olympic flame arrived in France on Wednesday, beginning a 79-day relay across the country and its territories that will culminate in Paris with the start of the Olympic Games on July 26.
In an elaborate ceremony attended by President Emmanuel Macron and a crowd estimated at more than 150,000 people, all eyes were on the Belem, a historic three-masted ship carrying the flame, and it was greeted by more than 1,000 ships in a forest of masts. filling the port of Marseille.
The Belem, which spent much of the day sailing past the city’s ancient port, set sail from Greece on April 27, carrying the flame lit at ancient Olympia eleven days earlier.
“We needed a powerful symbol, a strong symbol that somehow showed the radiant face of France,” Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris Olympic Committee, told France 2 television about the city, which was founded about 2,600 years ago. “Marseille is a city of sport, passion and festivities.”
Florent Manaudou, France’s Olympic champion in the men’s 50m freestyle in 2012, brought the flame ashore around 7:30 p.m. A branch of the French Air Force, known as the “Acrobatic Patrol,” traced the five Olympic rings in the sky. Macron is not expected to give a speech and opts to avoid politics in favor of a celebration that will include a free rap concert on a floating stage.
France has been the target of repeated Islamist terrorist attacks over the past decade, and security was tight on Wednesday, with access to the port area controlled by more than 6,000 law enforcement officers. Gérald Darmanin, interior minister and possible presidential candidate, called the level of security “unprecedented.”
Lucas Poujade, 23, a business student from the Auvergne region of central France, was on vacation near Marseille and decided to come watch the festivities.
“This is once in a lifetime,” he said. “I think the people of Marseille are proud and happy that the games are not only held in Paris. For those who will not have the opportunity to see one of the events, at least this is a way to feel involved.”
The relay carrying the flame will begin on Thursday. Among the torchbearers will be former star players of Olympique de Marseille (the local football club, including Didier Drogba and Jean-Pierre Papin), as well as Alexandre Mazzia, a three-star chef with an acclaimed restaurant in Marseille who will provide food to athletes during the Games.
“I am happy and proud to be part of this exceptional event,” Mazzia said in a brief interview. She added that for him carrying the flame represented “values of brotherhood, commitment, craftsmanship and French savoir-faire.”
More than 10,000 people will take part in the elaborate relay and will include the French overseas departments, as well as mainland France and Corsica. The torch, in a kind of grand tour of France in the world, will pass through Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Reunion, between June 9 and 17. It will make a first stop in Paris on July 14 and 15, before returning there on July 26 for its installation in the Tuileries Garden, between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde.
One idea behind the relay is to unite France, which is not entirely convinced by the prospect of the Olympics. A survey last month by the Ipsos polling institute found that only 53 percent of French people were interested in the Games; about 37 percent of people living outside Paris felt completely indifferent. While interest and enthusiasm have been growing in recent months as the Games approach, there is nothing resembling unanimity in France.
An opinion piece published Wednesday in the left-wing daily Libération and written by several local Marseille officials, including two deputy mayors, illustrated some of the concerns.
“Let’s open our eyes,” they wrote. “The flame is reaching a fortress Europe that has forgotten its traditions of greeting and hospitality,” they added, alluding to the attempts of far-right parties to repress growing immigration. The Olympics would damage the local environment, they said, and in Paris “will accelerate the phenomena of gentrification and expulsion of the poor.”
Marseille is a traditional rival of Paris, in sporting terms and in most others. Macron, a supporter of Olympique Marseille, has been a regular visitor to the city during his seven years as president. He has attempted, with only partial success, to address the serious social problems (drugs, violent crime, extreme poverty) that plague parts of the Mediterranean city.
But on Wednesday the mood in Marseille was decidedly optimistic. Music filled the air and the sounds of horns rose from the armada of ships that welcomed the Belem under a blue sky in the calm, glowing port.
The weather smiled on a city that has known more than its share of violence and hardship, while retaining the fierce pride and openness of a port city. As a symbol of the promise of the French Olympic Games, the choice of Marseille seemed apt.
Aurelien Breeden contributed with reports.