150,000 people expected in Marseille as Olympic flame arrives in France

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00 So up to a hundred and fifty thousand people expected today in the southern

00:05 French port of Marseille as the 2024 Olympic flame arrives in France for the

00:09 first time ahead of this summer's Olympic Games. The flame is to be

00:13 transferred from the 19th century tall ship the Bel-Aime before it begins a

00:17 12,000 kilometre torch relay across mainland France and the country's far

00:22 flung overseas territories. The organisers hoping its arrival today will

00:26 really ratchet up excitement levels across the nation. We're going to cross

00:30 then to Marseille, we're going to talk to Celina Sykes who's going to be there for

00:34 us throughout the day here on France 24. Celina I can only imagine, I've been to

00:38 Marseille several times, it's a beautiful place, beautiful port there, I can imagine

00:41 the excitement is beginning to build.

00:45 Certainly Stuart, it's still fairly early here in the Marseille but as you can see

00:50 the sun is out and people are already out and about too for what is going to

00:54 be a historic day for the city of Marseille and France. People we've spoken

00:59 to since arriving here yesterday and this morning say that they're very proud

01:04 that Marseille is the city that will be welcoming the torch onto French soil

01:09 and they really want to show that France's second biggest city is capable

01:14 of hosting such a big and prestigious event. For organisers it was

01:19 really quite an obvious choice because of Marseille's links to Greece where of

01:24 course the torch has been making its way after being lit in Olympia. Marseille is

01:28 France's oldest city and it was of course founded by Greek sailors

01:33 2,600 years ago so this is really a day of firsts for lots of people to get

01:38 excited about. It's the first time the flame will be arriving by sea, it's also

01:42 the first time that a city other than the host city will be welcoming it and

01:47 this is just a big day of festivities all round, kicking off at 11 a.m. with

01:52 that maritime parade where the Bellem will be accompanied by 1,024 boats. The

02:00 Bellem will then be making its grand entrance here behind me at the old

02:04 port at 7 p.m. We'll be hearing the Marseillaise, France's national anthem. We'll

02:09 also be hearing for the first time the Paris 2024 anthem which will be revealed

02:15 here and played by Marseille's National Orchestra. There'll be fireworks so a big

02:20 day of festivities but of course the moment we're all waiting for Stuart is

02:24 when the torch will be touching down on French soil. That honour has been handed

02:29 to a gold Olympic medalist and swimmer Florent Manadou. He will be making the

02:35 first steps here on a floating track that has been installed behind me in the

02:39 water. He'll be then arriving on a French soil here with the torch. The Olympics

02:44 cauldron will then be lit and it will be followed by a free concert. We could have

02:50 a few surprises in store. There's a lot of questions here about whether Zinedine

02:54 Zidane will be featuring. Of course the World Cup winner is without doubt the

02:59 sports figure, the most synonymous sports figure with the city of Marseille.

03:02 Celina, as Parisians I'm sure you probably agree with me it's been a

03:06 little flat so far the excitement for the Olympics but the organisers are

03:10 really hoping today and that torch really will kick things off in France

03:14 aren't they? For sure I mean obviously when France first won the Olympics big

03:21 bid all the way back in 2017 this day and everything that will follow it just

03:26 felt such like a faraway concept and obviously Paris there's lots of

03:31 questions in Paris and everywhere in France about organisation, about security,

03:35 about the cost, about whether France will be ready to host

03:38 such a big sporting event but I think it will be safe to say that after this

03:43 day of so much pomper to welcome the torch here and obviously when the

03:48 torch now will touch down on French soil it will be kicking off its long

03:53 journey across France and its overseas territories. It will be crisscrossing

03:57 throughout the country. People will be able to see it. That will kick off

04:02 from tomorrow on the 9th of May and there's many big personalities already

04:05 to get excited about. Stewart, the big football star, Didier Drogba will be

04:10 holding the torch as well as NBA, former NBA star Tony Parker.

04:15 Selenia, thanks very much. Selenia Sykes covering the events for us today in

04:20 Marseille. We'll be back with her in an hour's time as she said as the next

04:23 stage of that gets underway.

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