Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: MARCUS BRANDT / DPA / DPA PICTURE-ALLIANCE VIA AFP 22:52 p.m., April 30, 2023

Marseille, home of the Olympic flame of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Mayor Benoît Payan revealed the date of the arrival of the flame in the Phocaean city next year. "See you on May 8, 2024," he wrote on social networks.

The Olympic flame of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will land in France on May 8, 2024, as planned in Marseille, announced Sunday the mayor of the city, Benoît Payan. "See you on May 8, 2024 for the arrival of the Olympic flame in Marseille," Payan said on Twitter. On this occasion, "a great popular festival will be organized on the Old Port to celebrate together the largest sports competition in the world and the millennial history of the foundation of our city!", added the mayor of the second city of France.

See you on May 8, 2024 for the arrival of the Olympic flame in Marseille

A great popular party will be organized on the Old Port to celebrate together the biggest sports competition in the world and the millennial history of the foundation of our city! pic.twitter.com/fVHqEq8ZbI

— Benoît Payan (@BenoitPayan) April 30, 2023

Under his message broadcast on the social network is a photo of the huge tifo deployed in a stand of the Velodrome stadium before the kick-off of the Ligue 1 match between OM and Auxerre, tifo representing the Olympic flame and its rings in the middle of the white and sky blue colors of Marseille and framed on the sides by the blood and gold of Provence.

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From Belem

If the arrival of the Olympic flame by Marseille was known since early February, it is the date of this arrival that was specified Sunday evening by Benoît Payan. As announced at a press conference at Marseille City Hall on 3 February, the flame will land from the Bélem, one of the oldest three-masted ships in Europe to still sail, after a ten-day crossing from Greece, where, as in every edition of the Games, it will have been lit during a ceremony in Olympia.

The Phocaean city has a strong link with Greece, the Massalia colony having been founded by Greeks around 600 BC. "Marseille was founded by Greeks from Phocaea 2,600 years ago: by asking to welcome the flame on our shores, we wanted to reconnect with this great history of sharing, fraternity, diversity and solidarity," Payan said in February.

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Course announced at the end of May

The complete route of the flame to Paris, after its arrival in Marseille, should be announced at the end of May, just over a year before the Games, said Tony Estanguet, president of the organizing committee of the Paris Olympics (Cojo).

The only certainty for now: after its arrival in Marseille, the flame will cross sixty "territories" before arriving in Paris on July 14, ten days before the start of the Games. During the Games (26 July to 11 August 2024), Marseille will host the sailing events as well as ten matches of the women's and men's football tournaments, at the Stade Vélodrome.