The Olympic Torch lights up Paris for Bastille Day!
The Olympic Torch finally arrived in Paris for two days of celebrations in the heart of the city. With this arrival, the spirit of the 2024 Paris Olympics took over the entire capital, giving the Parisians a foretaste of the celebrations that await them during the Games. Set out with the City of Paris and Police authorities, the route of the Olympic Torch Relay lit up the French capital’s historical and emblematic sites. 220 torchbearers took it in turns to carry the Olympic Torch, from Thierry Henry to begin with on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées to Yannick Noah who lit the celebration cauldron in front of the Hôtel de Ville. The City of Paris organized an exceptional show with the Concert de Paris accompanied by the Radio France orchestra, followed by fireworks from the Eiffel Tower.
In several days’ time, France is going to enjoy the exceptional experience of hosting the Olympic Games after a 100-year wait and the Olympic Torch Relay, sponsored by Coca-Cola, Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne, is the best proof of the French population’s enthusiasm! Since the beginning of the adventure, more than 5.5 million spectators have come to watch the Olympic Torch pass by and this first day in Paris has already attracted several hundred thousand m****ore people along the route’s roadsides as well as all around the entertainment organised by the City of Paris authorities.
A symbolic kick-off
Right in the middle of the Bastille Day celebrations, the Olympic Torch made its appearance in front of the Presidential grandstand, in the presence of Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, and Tony Estanguet, Chairman of the Paris 2024 organising committee, for an already historic start to the day! Escorted by the horsemen of the famous Cadre noir de Saumur regiment, the Olympic Torch was proudly brandished by Colonel Thibault Vallette, chief horseman of the Cadre Noir and a gold medallist at the Rio Games in 2016.
This was followed by a number of sequences based on the theme of Olympic Values, including a collective relay by junior high school pupils from the Seine Saint-Denis suburb of the capital. After this prelude, the Olympic Torch was taken to the most famous avenue in the world, the Champs-Élysées, where it was awaited by football legend and coach of the under-23 French football team for the Olympic Games, Thierry Henry, who took the Olympic Torch from its Louis Vuitton designed case to kick off proceedings for the day’s relay. The first “torch kiss” took place with Romane Dicko, an Olympic Champion in judo who is preparing to take part in the 2024 Paris Games.
An emblematic route combining heritage, art and culture
Throughout the day, the Olympic Torch put the spotlight on the iconic sites of the French capital along with a whole host of entertainments organised by the City of Paris authorities. The relay continued its route to the Petit Palais Museum where four opera singers (the D.I.V.A) performed a quirky rendition of famous opera arias, before the Olympic Torch was taken to the capital’s political institutions, namely the Senate and neighbouring Jardin du Luxembourg park as well as the Assemblée Nationale, the site of the French parliament. At this point, it illuminated two Cultural Olympics projects: the colourful Venus statues by artist Laurent Perbos as well as a performance by 30 dancers from the Théâtre du Corps company choreographed by Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Julien Derouault.
The Olympic Torch Relay then visited the Panthéon and an artistic performance by Yohann Bourgeois, then Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which played host to a jazz concert by Thomas Curbillon, before heading to the hotspots of Parisian student life that are the Sorbonne University and Saint Geneviève library.
The Olympic Torch Relay’s route took it through the Andalusian garden of the Grand Mosque of Paris, before making its way past Notre Dame Cathedral, where the Paris fire brigade put on an artistic sequence. It also visited the forecourt of the Arab World Institute, at which a collective work by the artist Zepha was exhibited, and a tribute took place in front of the Mémorial de la Shoah holocaust museum. In the Marais district, the relay made its way through the legendary Place des Vosges and made a halt in front of the house of Victor Hugo.
It then headed to Place de la Bastille where a major Cultural Olympics labelled dance performance enchanted the spectators: 200 amateur dancers from the Paris Opera were joined by lead ballet dancers Dorothée Gilbert and Hugo Marchand, as well as 32 swans from Nureyev’s interpretation of the Swan Lake ballet. A vibrant tribute to the victims of the attacks on 13th November 2015 took place in front of the Bataclan, where Republican Guard cellist Arthur Lamarre performed.
The relay then took in Place du colonel Fabien, throbbing to the beats laid down by DJ Cargo, Rue des Martyrs and its street art entertainment, Opéra Garnier, Place Vendôme and then the Louvre Museum, which welcomes over 7 million visitors per year. After passing in front of the La Samaritaine department store, it crossed through the Nelson Mandela gardens, to the Hôtel de Ville. Following the Concert de Paris, accompanied by the orchestra of Radio France, the last day’s torchbearer, Yannick Noah, lit the celebration cauldron on the square for a moment of sharing with the Parisian public. The City of Paris fireworks display from the Eiffel Tower rounded off the day in style.
220 torchbearers help to light up Paris!
Such an exceptional day required exceptional torchbearers! This Sunday, 220 people had the honour of carrying the Olympic Torch. Among their ranks were leading sportspeople in their disciplines: basketballer Nicolas Batum, fencing athlete Enzo Leffort, boxers Brahim Asloum and Mark Traoré, athletes Valérie Frehaut and Sasha Zhoya, as well as former skier Sandra Laoura. Para-sports athletes were also present, such as Tanguy de la Forest (para-shooting), Frédéric Pasquier (wheelchair handball) and Luca Platania Parisi (para-fencing).
This Sunday was also marked by the presence of personalities well-known among the general public, such as Claudie Haigneré, the first European woman in space, multi-award winning pianist Lang Lang, actor and slam artist Souleymane Diamanka, Pierre Garnier, the winner of Star Academy, a musical tele-reality show, and Rayane Hechmi, winner of ‘La France a un incroyable talent’ (the Gallic version of Britain’s Got Talent), as well as Jin, a K-Pop icon and member of the band BTS. Claudie Haigneré, the first European woman in space, carried the Olympic Torch, as did a former Miss France Sylvie Tellier, who is also a founding member of “Les Bonnes Fées”, a charity set up by former winners of the French beauty pageant.
As on each day, members of the general public with inspiring stories to tell made up the ranks of the torchbearers, such as Lucia Teixeira, an apartment block caretaker and emblematic figure on Rue de Charonne who fled fascism in her youth, and Micheline Abergel, who founded the Toi Femmes collective, which raises awareness of violence against women. Lassana Bathily, the hero of the Hyper Cacher hostage crisis, Léon Placek, one of the last living witnesses to the tragedy of the Drancy internment camp, and Jean Turco, a former politician and the day’s oldest torchbearer (at the age of 106 years) also carried the Olympic Torch.
Coca-Cola, a sponsor of the Olympic Torch Relay, also organised a collective relay in the colours of Paris Saint-Germain. 22 employees of the Parisian football club paraded alongside two former leading players for the club, namely their captain Blaise Matuidi and Laura Georges.
At the end of this very thrilling day, the lantern in which the flame of Olympia is carefully guarded was taken to spend the night in the Saint Jean room in the Hôtel de Ville. Tomorrow, the Olympic Torch Relay will be out on the road again to make its way through the rest of the French capital’s districts for its second Parisian day!