Flame to pass by Bataclan, Shoah Memorial, Paris mayor says

The first torch bearer, Greek olympic gold medalist Stefanos Douskos, runs towards the monument to Pierre de Coubertin, in the background, after the official ceremony of the flame lighting for the Paris Olympics, at the Ancient Olympia site, Tuesday. The flame will be carried through Greece for 11 days before being handed over to Paris organizers on April 26. [AP]

The Olympic flame will pass by the site of the 2015 Islamist attack on the Bataclan concert hall as well as the Shoah Memorial as it makes its way through Paris in July ahead of the 2024 summer Games, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Tuesday.

"This torch is a message of peace, a message of friendship between peoples, which is all the stronger at a time when the world is in such bad shape," Hidalgo told France 2 TV.

She was speaking from Olympia, Greece, birthplace of the Games, where the flame was being lit before being taken to Marseille on May 8 and then gradually making its way to Paris ahead of the July 26 opening ceremony.

In Paris, torch bearers will also pass historic landmarks such the Place de la Concorde square and the National Assembly and through working-class neighborhoods, including Belleville or Porte de la Chapelle in the east and in the north,...

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