Paris - If there was any doubt as to whether the French public would embrace the Olympics, the month of May gave a pretty clear indication, as over a million spectators turned out to watch the Olympic torch light up its path across the country. The torch, which has been crossing France for almost a month and is about to leave for the West Indies, has provided the perfect gentle launch for the Games which get underway in Paris with the opening ceremony along the Seine on July 26. The images from Marseille in the south, where the torch arrived on board the Belem on May 8, to Mont Saint Michel in the north-west have been breathtaking and it has all passed off, thus far, without serious incident.
“There’s no denying that Marseille launched the momentum,” says Gregory Murac, head of the torch relay for the organising committee. In addition to a crowd of 200,000, more than 5.9 million television viewers watched rapper Jul light up the cauldron, in an atmosphere worthy of a Marseille football match.
That in itself was a massive relief to the organisers, who then watched as the torch began its journey, the public turning out in huge numbers along the way. Nearly 1.2 million people are estimated to have turned out to watch the relay, with many families on the roads in an atmosphere worthy of the Tour de France.
It has been accompanied every step of the way, however, by a procession of 200 police officers, and security remains a concern. The torch has, as the authorities feared, .