Olympic torch manages to reach France ahead of Paris 2024

A large crowd lined the banks of the Old Port on Wednesday to watch the three-mast Belem ship finish its journey from Athens to Marseille, delivering the Olympic torch to France ahead of the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

The torch was initially lit April 16 at the ancient stadium in Olympia. A relay of torchbearers then carried the flame on a 3,100-mile journey trough Greece before it was handed off in Athens on April 27.

France’s national anthem played as fighter jets flew overhead, illuminating the sky with smoke trails the color of the French flag Wednesday in Marseille. French swimmer Florent Manaudou, a four-time Olympic medalist, then removed the torch from a Louis Vuitton case aboard the Belem.

He slowly walked the torch off the ship before handing it off to another group of torchbearers. One of those torchbearers, Marseille rapper Jul, then lit a cauldron as the crowd cheered amid firework explosions.

The torch now will be carried throughout France, making a total of 400 stops, including at the Normandy beaches stormed in World War II and the picturesque Mont Saint-Michel.