Organisers of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris have unveiled the route the Olympic torch will take through France.
After arriving in Marseille from Greece on May 8, it will be paraded across dozens of sites in France – including overseas territories of the country during an “ocean rally”.
After a whirlwind, 80-day tour, the torch will arrive at the banks of the River Seine for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Thousands of torchbearers will take it in turn to run with the torch taking in sporting locations and some of France’s best-known sites, including Mont St Michel, The Palace of Versailles and Mont Blanc.
Organisers say the relay aims to “illuminate the beauty and diversity of the French territories”.
What route will the Olympic torch take in France?
After being lit in Greece, the torch will arrive in Marseille – once an Ancient Greek colony – on May 8.
After that, it will travel through the Mediterranean south of France – with a quick stop off in Corsica – before sailing back to Perpignan and scaling the south-west and Atlantic coast.
The torch will then undergo a “rally of the oceans,” visiting most of France’s overseas departments, including Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guyana, as well as French Polynesia.
Returning to Nice, the route will then traverse the mountains and east of the country, before reaching the banks of the Seine for the opening ceremony on July 26.
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All in all, the torch will stop at over 100 “emblematic” sites across France, and you can see the map of the route below.
Credit: Paris2024
Olympic torch schedule
This is the route the Olympic torch will be taking and when. Please note the list is not exhaustive of all locations the flame will visit en route.
May 8-9: Marseille
May 10: Toulon
May 11: Manosque
May 12: Arles
May 13: Montpellier
May 14: Bastia
May 15: Perpignan
May 16: Carcassonne
May 17: Toulouse
May 18: Auch
May 19: Tarbes
May 20: Pau
May 22: Périgueux
May 23: Bordeaux
May 24: Angoulême
May 25: Futuroscope
May 27: Châteauroux
May 28: Angers
May 29: Laval
May 30: Caen
May 31: Mont Saint-Michel
June 1: Rennes
June 2: Niort
June 4: Les Sables-d'Olonne
June 5: La Baule
June 6: Vannes
June 7: Brest
June 9: Cayenne (French Guiana)
June 12: Saint-Denis (Réunion)
June 13: Papeete (French Polynesia)
June 15: Baie-Mahault (Guadeloupe)
June 17: Fort-de-France (Martinique)
June 18: Nice
June 19: Avignon
June 20: Valence
June 21: Vichy
June 22: Saint-Étienne
June 23: Chamonix
June 25: Besançon
June 26: Strasbourg
June 27: Metz
June 28: Saint-Dizier
June 29: Verdun
June 30: Reims
July 2: Lille
July 3: Lens – Liévin
July 4: Amiens
July 5: Le Havre
July 6: Vernon
July 7: Chartres
July 9: Blois
July 10: Orléans
July 11: Auxerre
July 12: Dijon
July 13: Troyes
July 14-15: Paris
July 17: Saint-Quentin
July 18: Beauvais
July 19: Soisy-sous-Montmorency
July 20: Meaux
July 21: Créteil
July 22: Évry-Courcouronnes
July 23: Versailles
July 24: Esplanade de La Défense, Nanterre
July 25: Parc Georges-Valbon
July 26: Paris - Olympic Games opening ceremony
10,000 to carry the torch
Each day will be filled with “relays” which see the torch travel between various cities, as well as to emblematic sites.
Sometimes, more than one “emblematic site” (a cultural or historical landmark) will be visited within the day, as bearers carry the flame across the country.
All in all, 65 towns will be ‘stopover towns’, where the torch will be kept for one night before continuing onwards the next day, which will see celebrations and events held.
If you are interested, it is possible to sign up to be in with a chance to be one of the 10,000 torch bearers set to carry the flame – you can read how to do so in our article here.
