The flame ring, a “powerful flow of light” “100% electric” projected onto a “cloud of water”, can be visited during the day, before taking off each night to light up the Paris sky.
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The Olympic cauldron resembling a hot air balloon, lit on the evening of Friday July 26 by former athlete Marie-José Pérec and judoka Teddy Riner, will be accessible free of charge for the duration of the Olympic Games, announced Paris 2024 and EDF, which created this “100% electric” flame.
From this Saturday, “and every day during the Games, 10,000 people will be able to come as close as possible to the cauldron, at a rate of 300 entries every quarter of an hour,” the 2024 Olympic Games Organizing Committee (Cojo) indicated on its website.
“This opening of the Tuileries Gardens”, where the cauldron is located “from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., with a capacity set at 3,000 people present at a time”, “puts it within reach of the public during the day before it returns to the Paris sky at nightfall”.
On the ground during the day, therefore, the basin imagined by the French designer Mathieu Lehanneur will in fact take flight each evening “at sunset” and “will be visible from hundreds of meters away to be seen by all,” promises Paris 2024.
“Apparent simplicity”
For its part, EDF is making this “flame ring” the symbol of “a more responsible future, that of an electric future”, boasts a press release. The flame is in reality a “powerful flow of light” projected onto a “cloud of water”. “The apparent simplicity of this solution, made possible by technological advances in LEDs, hides long hours of work”, explains EDF. In total, it integrates 40 projectors, indicates EDF, which specifies that “the water consumption, of the order of 3 cubic meters per hour when the basin is in flight, is reduced to 2 cubic meters when it is on the ground in the Jardin des Tuileries”.
Made of aluminum, it “meets the challenge of robustness and lightness,” says EDF. The positioning of the flame ring at a height of 60 meters at night implies “an unavoidable constraint of lightness, integrity and safety comparable to the requirements of aeronautical engineering.”
Paris 2024 explains that the torch expresses “through its symmetry a symbol of Equality”, while “the cauldron of the relay, taking up the pure and circular form of the ring, symbolizes Fraternity”. “All that was missing was Liberty to complete the national motto. Between earth and sky, the Paris 2024 flying cauldron is the perfect incarnation of it”.
