“Flawless”, “successful bet”: the French press ecstatic about the arrival of the Olympic flame in Marseille

The surprise appearance of Jul as the last torchbearer to light the Olympic cauldron may have surprised Wednesday evening in Marseille, but the French press gave a particularly positive response this Thursday morning on the festivities linked to the arrival of the Olympic flame on French territory . Throughout the day, spectacular images followed one another, between the Belem maritime parade in the bay of France's second city, its entry into the Old Port between fireworks and the Patrouille de France show, then the descent of Florent Manaudou on French soil.

“A successful bet for the Marseille city”, enthuses Sud Ouest, which suggests that the day “will be a landmark in the history of Marseille as in that of the Olympic Games”. Le Monde is also enthusiastic, emphasizing “a flawless performance to celebrate the arrival in France of the Olympic flame”. Provence describes the event as “Historic”, and affirms that “the Games are launched” after a day spent in “a crazy atmosphere”.

Throughout the day, more than 150,000 people, including “families, young people, older people” were mainly present to attend the festivities, “to enjoy the Provençal sun and local entertainment” as reported by Le Parisien. The Belem maritime trip impressed the special correspondent of Le Figaro, who describes it as a “fine-grained choreography, for a myriad of hulls accompanied by a smiling weather forecast and a complicit mistral”. “The Games project is, for a day bathed in sunshine, taken out of offices, boxes, meetings and think tanks to take action,” we can also read.

“The incessant ballet of the public contrasts with the Olympian calm of Fort Saint-Jean adjoining the Mucem,” continues the daily. The forty minutes between the harbor and the beating heart of the city were extraordinarily rich in emotion.” “A grandiose maritime parade,” says La Marseillaise.

The main question of the day concerned the identity of two of the three bearers of the Olympic flame apart from Florent Manaudou, first to set foot on French soil on a floating athletics track, installed for the occasion. The swimmer passed the baton to Paralympic champion Nantenin Keïta, Paralympic champion in the 400 meters at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio. The last torchbearer then took off his hood, causing astonishment in the Old Port. “(Jul) collected the flame by making the hand sign that made it popular. A surprise when the name of Zinédine Zidane was circulating in the afternoon,” recalls La Voix du Nord. The end of the day concluded with a concert by Alonzo and Soprano at nightfall.

However, as Le Monde points out, it is difficult to say that Marseille was faithful to its “title of ‘center of the world’ for a day”. Abroad, reactions are few or even non-existent in the main press titles, such as in Italy, Spain, Germany, Russia or India.

In Japan, where the Olympic spirit is particularly strong, the Yomiuri shinbun relates the “paroxysm of crowd excitement” at the moment when “a popular local singer (Jul, Editor's note) received the torch and lit the cauldron of the torch." The BBC highlights the "6,000 law enforcement agents" deployed in the Marseille city and recalls that the government "raised its level of threat to its security last October after a teacher (Dominique Bernard, Editor's note) was killed in a knife attack.