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ReportOn Sunday, July 14, the capital welcomed the Olympic flame in an adventure that combines gravity and enthusiasm, from the Champs-Élysées to the City Hall.
And suddenly the Olympic cauldron caught fire in the halls of the Paris City Hall. At 11:26 p. m. , Anne Hidalgo, despite everything, broke the suspense by revealing the identity of the last torch relay, while the names of the footballers could be heard in the crowd. Zinedine Zidane and Kylian Mbappé were whispering. It will be the former tennis player turned singer Yannick Noah, “a wonderful champion of France”, in the words of the socialist mayor of Paris, who is delighted, along with the president of the Organization. Olympic and Paralympic Games Committee, Tony Estanguet. Outside, on a black square with the world, many arms rise in the night, brandishing a phone in video mode. The Marseillaise resonates for a while before the first lights of the Eiffel Tower. Fireworks rise from the tower.
Throughout this Sunday, July 14, the Olympic torch traveled through the streets of the Parisian neighborhoods, in a mosaic of diverse atmospheres, wise, hard-working or daring. Like the image of a capital, the host city of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is concretely discovered, after weeks of depression due to the national and foreign political scene plagued by threats.
It has been more than two months since the flame, which arrived from Athens through Belem, landed in Marseille with unprecedented popular fervor. From Lille to Strasbourg, from Verdun to Brittany, passing through the territories, the enthusiasm of the French has not diminished since then. Some five million of them – according to the organizers – have been gathering on the roads for more than two months to applaud the bearers of the Olympic torch. Twelve days before the opening rite on the Seine, will Paris also participate in the Games?
It all began, at 1 p. m. , with the symbol of the Louis Vuitton trunk, which houses the flame, placed at the Franklin-Roosevelt roundabout, from where the Olympic convoy will depart. Amid applause from a small gathering of curious onlookers, Thierry Enrique was the first to leave for the Champs-Elysées for this level 57 of the torch route. A few hours earlier, the Olympic flame had closed the army parade, escorted down Foch Avenue among the squires of Saumur’s Cadre Noir.
Brigitte Fournier wears a cap with the “Paris 2024” logo that was recently purchased from the official store. “It’s a great event,” exclaims the Parisian, who came here with her husband. We like to welcome the Games and tourists. A little further on, on the stairs of the Petit Palais, four opera singers perform wonderful opera arias. As the small crowd disperses, Véronique Crombé, a professor at the National Museums, sits down on the lawn to draw. I would have liked the Universal Exposition of the Olympic Games,” he says. But the only thing I hope is that everything goes well. »
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