a Sunday when the Olympic flame passes through Deux-Sèvres – Libération

This weekend, 95 torchbearers crossed seven towns in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine department, in front of an audience of 43,000 people gathered along the roads. In the towns of Bressuire and Saint-Maixent l’Ecole, the atmosphere resembled a tour of France before its time.

Sign up here to receive free every Friday our Libélympic newsletter.

Let the festivities begin ! It’s 9 a.m. on Sunday and music breaks the silence in the streets of Bressuire. In a little over an hour, the Olympic flame will shake the torpor of the town of Deux-Sèvres, capital of the Bocage. Most of the shops are closed due to Sunday holidays, but the Narval Café is bustling. Viviane too. With the Chicago Bulls cap on her head, this fifty-year-old has been Druckering all week: “Can’t wait for Sunday, can’t wait for Sunday!” Smoking in front of the establishment, she adds: “We see the flame everywhere on TV, I can’t wait. We won’t see this again in our lives.”

Since May 9, the relay has attracted more than a million people, gathered on roadsides and in towns, around the cauldron which ignites every evening. The boss of Narval, Emmanuel, a former 2-metre basketball player, sums up the idea: “It brings people and life.” Like a stage of the Tour de France, without the cyclists. The mayor without a label, Emmanuelle Ménard, arrives by bike, she has just completed the route “to see if everything was okay!”

Like 65 other departments (out of 101), Deux-Sèvres paid 180,000 euros for the relay to pass through there. In all, seven cities crossed and 95 torchbearers, “ordinary people who do extraordinary things” as the slogan of the Olympic Organizing Committee which organizes the route to Paris says. For the most part, representatives of civil society but also local athletes and a few celebrities. In total, the day in Deux-Sèvres brought together more than 43,000 people as the flame passed.

You were 43,300 people yesterday in the #DeuxSevres for the #RelaisdeLaFlamme 🔥

Thank you to the local authorities, volunteers, sports clubs, torchbearers, security, rescue and health forces mobilized for the success of this historic day👏

📸Credits: Paris 2024 pic.twitter.com/NfOWwBCWzG

— Prefect of Deux-Sèvres (@Prefet79) June 3, 2024

This Olympic show less than two months before the Games does not please everyone. “It doesn’t make me hot or cold, I wouldn’t have come on purpose,” whispers a town hall employee, not delighted to have been requisitioned for the day. There is money to put elsewhere.” The crowd begins to gather, heads slip out of the windows. Sébastien, a teacher who came with his partner Emilie and their 10-year-old daughter Maud, explains: “For the little one, it’s important to see this moment.” And then there’s a commotion.

A woman climbed onto a float from the Savings Bank – sponsors of the relay – tries to chant something but her microphone makes her inaudible. At his side, a squirrel offers to play basketball and gendarmes in vans greet the public like the Queen of England. “That way, the delinquents can go and do stupid things elsewhere,” jokes a spectator.

“We probably won’t see her again right away”

It’s 10:26 a.m. After crossing the Mediterranean aboard the Belem, disembarking with great fanfare in Marseille and traveling 16 stages across France, the Olympic torch is found right in front of the laundromat on Place du Docteur Barillet in Bressuire. Around her and her carrier, around fifteen police officers in white raincoats and with broad shoulders cast epileptic glances. This is the security “bubble”, in which participate, among others, members of the GIGN responsible for warding off possible armed attacks. But for the moment, the Olympic parade has not experienced any major incident in a month.

In front of the crowd gathered in front of the nearby church, the announcer from Coca – the other sponsor – jokes: “It’s not the Lord’s day, it’s the day of the Olympic flame!” About fifteen people brandish signs crossed out with “Team Manon”, a medical student “who works in health sports”, says her father, proud that his daughter was selected among the 10,000 torchbearers who will carry the flame to ‘to July 26. “Sport is also a way to include everyone.” Almost as quickly as it appeared, the flame disappeared. The party hits the road.

On the main street of Saint-Maixent-l’Ecole, Enzo finishes a taco while waiting for the relay. In his mouth, they are the same words as all morning: “historic”, “unique”, “pride”. Allison, 29, arrived early to set up her seat in front of a van from which emanated the smells of waffles and chichis, a scent of vacation in such a rainy spring. “We probably won’t see her again right away,” laugh Hélène and Gilbert, both 73 years old. The last time the flame passed through the department dates back to 1992, during the Winter Olympics in Albertville, but the French candidacy for the 2030 Olympics in the Alps could make them lie.

“Thomas, do you have a fire?”

In the relay village, a football game (which sometimes turns into rugby) brings together 32 angry kids on a mini-pitch. The crowd is there: they are playing tennis, table tennis or basketball while waiting to see the star of the day. And to have a good time together. Sitting on an electric box, Benoît, 40 years old, cap on his head, becomes philosophical as he sees the avenue filling up: “Everyone is content and happy. Sport gives you a lot of joy.” That we must spread and share, like Florence perched on a window sill. Her hospitalized father told her to “go see the flame,” she says. At the foot of Porte Châlon, an 18th century building, a hilarious man says: “Thomas, do you have a fire?”

Like a rock star, Thomas, 18, emerges all in white from the Olympic bus which transports the torchbearers to their section of the road. We push each other for a photo with the amateur footballer and the famous torch. His 200 meter race will be a formality after a half marathon run the day before, but this time it is for history. Selected by the Savings Bank, he still can’t believe it: “I’m enjoying it.” A guy from the organization tells him to wave on both sides of the road. Thomas complies. The rumor is getting closer, “she’s coming” are flying around. It’s 2:40 p.m. A torchbearer stops near Thomas. It’s time for the “torch kiss”, the relay. The flame continues on its path.