The Olympic flame returns to Paris for three summers

The Olympic flame is back. And it will be every summer in Paris for the next three years, before the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. From June 21, the evening of the Fête de la Musique, until September 14, the date of the National Sports Day decreed by Emmanuel Macron, anyone in Paris will be able to see or see again a helium-filled balloon, held by a tether, rise 60 meters into the sky above the capital, raising the cauldron and its flame. Access will be free, without gauges or reservations, and the flame will be available for close encounters during the day, explained the prefect of the Île-de-France region, Marc Guillaume, on Wednesday 15th.

The raising of the cauldron, at the end of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Games , was one of the big surprises of this rainy, but not windy, evening of Friday, July 26, 2024. The enthusiasm for the flame – in reality an electrical installation made up of 40 LED projectors and 32 fans which sculpt the light – was immediate.

Every evening, whether the weather was beautiful or a storm was threatening, streams of tourists, Parisians, couples, and families flocked to the Tuileries Gardens to watch the spectacle. Some came back with their cousins, accompanied their grumpy friends who had returned from vacation earlier than expected because something was happening in Paris. Everyone left with the same photos on their phones: the flame placed between their hands, the flame on the tip of their tongue like a fire-eater, the helium balloon on the toe for football fans. There were up to 30,000 people on some evenings.

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