The Olympic flame for the 2024 Paris Games will be carried for 68 days before the cauldron is lit

Paris, June 23 (BNA): The Olympic flame for the 2024 Paris Games will pass through 64 departments — including five overseas — and 400 towns over the course of 68 days before lighting the cauldron.

Organizers announced the route for the torch relay on Friday at a university in Paris, according to the Associated Press.

The flame will be lit by sunlight on April 16 in ancient Olympia, Greece. It will then be carried around the country before being delivered in Athens.

The flame will leave Athens on April 27 aboard a three-masted ship named Belém for the French port of Marseille – a former Greek colony founded 2,600 years ago.

Belem was first used in 1896, the same year the modern Olympic Games returned. It will be piloted by French navigator Armel Le Cleac, winner of the Vendée Globe solo round-the-world race in 2017. The crew will arrive in Marseille on May 8.

The location of where the cauldron will be lit and at what time is kept secret until the day itself, amid widespread expectation it will be in the famous Eiffel Tower.

A total of 10,000 people will participate in the torch relay. The four leaders of the relay will be Olympic swimming champions Laure Manoudou and Florent Manoudou – who are brothers – along with Paralympians Mona Francis (triathlon) and Dimitri Pavady (long jump).

The Paris Games will be held from July 26 through August. 11, followed by the Paralympic Games from August 28 to September. 8. The Paralympic torch will be lit in Stoke Mandeville and carried by 1,000 people.

insignificant