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00:00 [HORN BLOWING]
00:05 The Olympic torch relay, which began at ancient Olympia
00:09 on April 16, will resume from there,
00:12 carrying the flame through both metropolitan France
00:15 and overseas territories until July 26,
00:18 the starting date of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
00:21 The choice of Bel-Am, the passage to the Corinth Canal,
00:28 and the arrival in Marseille were
00:30 designed to emphasize the links between France and Greece.
00:34 This was said by Tony Istanguet, the head of the Olympics
00:37 organizer committee, who himself won one of his three gold
00:40 medals in Connausson-Lond in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
00:46 This week has been really very emotional for me
00:50 because attending the transmission of the flame
00:55 in the Panathenaic Stadium, visiting the Bel-Am,
01:00 and yesterday watching the Bel-Am leaving
01:03 with the flame on it, it was really amazing and exceptional.
01:08 I think it's the first.
01:10 Usually it goes by plane.
01:12 So using the natural, the wind, and it keeps us a little bit
01:17 more in the tradition.
01:19 And it's really a promotion of the sailing
01:24 as a mean to transport over the seas, and less motor,
01:29 less engines, more of the sailing using of the wind.
01:34 I think it's a great opportunity to bring sailing back
01:38 for other purposes than just racing.
01:42 The 51-meter, 406-ton Bel-Am first
01:45 sailed in 1896, the year the first Olympics
01:48 took place in Athens.
01:52 We arrived in Athens yesterday, and we just saw the Bel-Am
01:58 arrive, and we are very proud that it is a French boat that
02:01 is passing through here.
02:02 We are very happy.
02:03 In fact, we didn't know it was coming here,
02:05 so we are very happy to see it coming.
02:09 The Corinth Canal, which opened in 1893,
02:12 was largely funded by French banks and French engineers,
02:16 assisted in its construction, and Marseille
02:18 was found in 600 BC as Massalia by Greek settlers
02:22 from Asia Minor.
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02:39 (upbeat music)