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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

MAP: Where will the Olympic torch visit on its journey through France?

Here's the complete list of places the Olympic torch will pass through during its 11-week journey around France - from towns and cities to villages and beaches, plus some of the country's best known tourist sites.

Published: 23 June 2023 15:09 CEST
MAP: Where will the Olympic torch visit on its journey through France?
Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP

The Paris Olympic organising committee has revealed full details of the route that the Olympic torch will take on its journey around France.

It will take in 65 towns and cities, plus more than 100 French tourist or cultural sites, before arriving in Paris in time for the opening ceremony on July 26th, 2024.

Here’s the complete list of places it will visit;

  • May 9th Marseille – Roucas-Blanc and the Vélodrome stadium
  • May 10th Toulon – L’Almanarre and the Route du sel at Hyères
  • May 11th – Manosque Citadelle de Sisteron and the Verdon Gorge natural park
  • May 12th Arles – Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône and the Arles arena
  • May 13th Montpellier – Arc de Triomphe de Montpellier and the Millau viaduct
  • May 14th Bastia (Corsica) – Aiguilles de Bavella
  • May 15th Perpignan – Centre national d’entraînement en altitude de Font-Romeu and Mont Canigou mountain
  • May 16th Carcassonne – Plage des Chalets – Gruissan and the Medieval cité of Carcassonne
  • May 17th Toulouse – La Halle de Revel
  • May 18th Auch – Statue of the Three Musketeers in Condom
  • May 19th Tarbes – Cirque de Gavarnie and the summit of the Midi de Bigorre mountain
  • May 20th Pau – Stade d’eaux vives and the beach at Biarritz
  • May 22nd Périgueux – Bassin de la Dordogne and the famous prehistoric Lascaux caves
  • May 23rd Bordeaux – Cité du vin wine museum and the vineyards of Saint-Emilion
  • May 24th Angoulême – Musée de la Bande dessinée (comic book museum) and the nearby town of Cognac
  • May 25th Poitiers – Palais des ducs d’Aquitaine
  • May 27th Châteauroux – Château de Valencay
  • May 28th Angers – Château de Montsoreau and the vineyards of Coteaux-du-Layon
  • May 29th Laval – Cité médiévale in the village of Sainte-Suzanne-et-Chammes
  • May 30th Caen – Honfleur and the D-Day landing beaches
  • May 31st Manche – Mont-Saint-Michel and the seaside town of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue
  • June 1st Rennes – Forêt de Brocéliande and the village of Paimpont
  • June 2nd Niort – the marshes of Marais Poitevin the village of Coulon
  • June 4th Les Sables-d’Olonne – Passage du Gois causeway to the island of Noirmoutier and Puy du Fou theme park
  • June 5th La Baule – La baie de la Baule
  • June 6th Vannes – Cité de la voile Eric Tabarly (sailing museum) and Île-aux-Moines island
  • June 7th Brest – Pointe de la Torche peninsula

Overseas territories

The flame will also travel around France’s overseas territories, by plane and boat

  • June 8th French Polynesia – Papeete, Tahiti and Teahupo’o 
  • June 9th French Guiana – Cayenne, Camopi the Oyapock rover and the Centre Spatial de Kourou 
  • June 12th La Réunion – Saint-Denis, Plaine des Sables, Cité du Volcan and Pointe de Langevin
  • June 15th Guadeloupe – Baie-Mahault, Mémorial ACTe and Pointe-à-Pitre 
  • June 17th Martinique – Fort-de-France, La Montagne Pelée and Saint-Pierre 

Back to mainland France

  • June 18th Nice – Antibes Juan-les-Pins and the Palais des Festivals in Cannes 
  • June 19th Avignon – Roman amphitheatre Théâtre antique d’Orange and Mont-Ventoux mountain
  • June 20th Valence – Château de Grignan 
  • June 21st Vichy – CREPS de Vichy spa
  • June 22nd Saint-Etienne – Maison de la culture Le Corbusier and Stade Geoffroy-Guichard stadium
  • June 23rd Chamonix – Annecy make and the Mont Blanc valley
  • June 25th Besançon – Tremplins de Chaux-Neuve 
  • June 26th Strasbourg – Huningue and Passerelle des Trois Pays
  • June 27th Metz – Site Verrier de Meisenthal, Maison de Robert Schuman and the mountain-top town of Scy-Chazelles
  • June 28th Saint-Dizier – Bourbonne-les-Bains and Charles de Gaulle’s burial site at Colombey-les-deux-églises 
  • June 29th Verdun – Citadelle de Montmédy and World War 1 memorial of Verdun
  • June 30th Reims – Avenue de Champagne in Epernay
  • July 2nd Lille – Wallers-Arenberg former coal-mining site
  • July 3rd Lens-Liévin – Stade Bollaert-Delelis stadium and the Louvre-Lens gallery
  • July 4th Amiens – Baie de Somme and Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme
  • July 5th Le Havre – Cathédrale de Rouen 
  • July 6th Vernon – Pont-Audemer 
  • July 7th Chartres – Domaine Royal de Dreux chapel
  • July 9th Blois – Château de Chambord
  • July 10th Orléans – Château de Sully-sur-Loire and Joan of Arc museum Maison de Jeanne d’Arc
  • July 11th Auxerre – Vézelay and the vineyards of Chablis
  • July 12th Dijon – Clos de Vougeot and the archaeological site of Alésia
  • July 13th Troyes – Les Lacs de la forêt d’Orient natural park
  • July 14th and 15th Paris – Musée Carnavalet and Court Simonne-Mathieu at Roland Garros
  • July 17th Saint-Quentin – Familistère de Guise and Cité internationale de la langue française
  • July 18th Beauvais – Château de Chantilly 
  • July 19th Val-d’Oise – Soisy-sous-Montmorency and Auvers-sur-Oise 
  • July 20th Seine-et-Marne – Meaux and the Château de Fontainebleau 
  • July 21st Val-de-Marne – Créteil and the food market at Rungis
  • July 22nd Essonne – Evry-Courcouronnes and the French National Rugby Centre at Marcoussis
  • July 23rd Yvelines – Versailles (town and Chateau), Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and the National golf centre
  • July 24th Hauts-de-Seine – La Défense business district, Nanterre, Haras de Jardy equitation centre and Stade Yves-du-Manoir stadium
  • July 25th Seine-Saint-Denis – Parc Georges-Valbon, Canal de l’Ourcq and the newly-built Aquatics Centre Saint-Denis, opposite Stade de France
  • July 26th Seine Saint-Denis and Paris – final day of the relay, ending with the lighting of the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony on the River Seine

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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

Olympic torch sets sail at start of its voyage to France

The Olympic flame set sail on Saturday on its voyage to France on board the Belem, the Torch Relay reaching its climax at the revolutionary Paris Games opening ceremony along the river Seine on July 26.

Published: 27 April 2024 13:33 CEST
Olympic torch sets sail at start of its voyage to France

“The feelings are so exceptional. It’s such an emotion for me”, Tony Estanguet, Paris Olympics chief organiser, told reporters before the departure of the ship from Piraeus.

He hailed the “great coincidence” how the Belem was launched just weeks after the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896.

“These games mean a lot. It’s been a centenary since the last time we organised the Olympic games in our country,” he added.

The 19th-century three-masted boat set sail on a calm sea but under cloudy skies.

It was accompanied off the port of Piraeus by the trireme Olympias of the Greek Navy and 25 sailing boats while dozens of people watched behind railings for security reasons.

“We came here so that the children understand that the Olympic ideal was born in Greece. I’m really moved,” Giorgos Kontopoulos, who watched the ship starting its voyage with his two children, told AFP.

On Sunday, the ship will pass from the Corinth Canal — a feat of 19th century engineering constructed with the contribution of French banks and engineers.

‘More responsible Games’ 

The Belem is set to reach Marseille — where a Greek colony was founded in around 600 BCE — on May 8.

Over 1,000 vessels will accompany its approach to the harbour, local officials have said.

French swimmer Florent Manaudou will be the first torch bearer in Marseille. His sister Laure was the second torch bearer in ancient Olympia, where the flame was lit on April 16.

Ten thousand torchbearers will then carry the flame across 64 French territories.

It will travel through more than 450 towns and cities, and dozens of tourist attractions during its 12,000-kilometre (7,500-mile) journey through mainland France and overseas French territories in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific.

It will then reach Paris and be the centre piece of the hugely imaginative and new approach to the Games opening ceremony.

Instead of the traditional approach of parading through the athletics stadium at the start of the Games, teams are set to sail down the Seine on a flotilla of boats in front of up to 500,000 spectators, including people watching from nearby buildings.

The torch harks back to the ancient Olympics when a sacred flame burned throughout the Games. The tradition was revived in 1936 for the Berlin Games.

Greece on Friday had handed over the Olympic flame of the 2024 Games, at a ceremony, to Estanguet.

Hellenic Olympic Committee chairman Spyros Capralos handed the torch to Estanguet at the Panathenaic Stadium, where the Olympics were held in 1896.

Estanguet said the goal for Paris was to organise “spectacular but also more responsible Games, which will contribute towards a more inclusive society.”

Organisers want to ensure “the biggest event in the world plays an accelerating role in addressing the crucial questions of our time,” said Estanguet, a member of France’s Athens 2004 Olympics team who won gold in the slalom canoe event.

A duo of French champions, Beijing 2022 ice dance gold medallist Gabriella Papadakis and former swimmer Beatrice Hess, one of the most successful Paralympians in history, carried the flame during the final relay leg into the Panathenaic Stadium.

Nana Mouskouri, the 89-year-old Greek singer with a worldwide following, sang the French and Greek anthems at the ceremony.

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